Can you imagine losing your home to criminals because of a grow operation in your property? It is extremely important that you protect yourself as a landlord to ensure this doesn’t happen to you.
As a specialist in marijuana grow op remediation, I have seen many less than fortunate people get caught with a huge remediation bill on their rental properties. Good, innocent people who work hard to get ahead in life. People who purchase a rental investment in hopes of making a smart investment as they plan for their retirement. Only to find out that they were the victims of criminals gain to destroy their property by growing marijuana in their house. The huge destruction, not only destroys their retirement plans but in most cases, their credit, homes and valuable time. Not to mention the devastation of being victimized & having to clean up the aftermath. Are Landlords victims of grow ops? How to protect yourself as a landlord?
One particular unpleasant incident that stays in my mind, is a local couple with a family and a beautiful 5 bedroom home located in a quiet community outside of the city. Their daughter became so ill she was hospitalized for a long period of time, and traveling to and from the hospital everyday was too much for them to cope so they decided to rent a place closer to the hospital, just to be at the side of their sick child. To help them burden the cost, they decided to find short term renters for their lovely home.
Never being a landlord before, they didn’t know the proper procedures to follow and, going with their gut intuitions, assuming their new renters would take care of their property. They later found out after six months that their home was turned into a large marijuana grow operation and every room needed to be completely gutted. The cost to remediate and rebuild was too much for them to manage. To make matters worse, no insurance is covered because of criminal activity and the bank wouldn’t let them use their equity to borrow against. This poor couple couldn’t come up with the extra money so they had no choice but to give it back to the bank and walk away. They had lost everything!
Don’t let this happen to you or anyone you love. Please read our simple guides to protect yourself, your home, your renters and we can all work together to keep our community safe & clean for the future.
When renting your property, landlords are urged to take extra steps in evaluating potential renters.
7 steps to protect against being a victim of grow up or drug lab
- Fill out a Rental agreements
- Request references and contact those references.
- Confirm and copy identification provided by the prospective renter.
- Do a Credit Check on the potential renters
- Request a security clearance or criminal record check from potential renters. The request alone may dissuade criminals from choosing your home. Security clearances can be obtained through any police agency for a minimal cost.
- Be aware and very cautious that they can be fraudulent information, including fake names, fake references and counterfeit identification.
- Conduct frequent inspections of the property as per the Landlord Tenant Act.
Being informed can go a long way to avoid being a victim. But if you or someone you know has been a victim of a grow operation, please contact us for help with the grow op remediation and rebuilding of your property to return it to a safe environment.
