Posted by carson on March 10, 2006 at 09:19:54:
meth can be EXTREMLY harmful even after the drugs are gone. They have to completly redo a lot of stuff to make it livable again.
mold and meth rehab - Posted by Jim (Seattle, WA)
Posted by Jim (Seattle, WA) on March 10, 2006 at 08:28:49:
I am trying to find out if a house I have under contract has been used to make drugs of some kind. If so I need to find out how much it is going to cost to get rid of the problem and liability.
There is a mold problem as well. I am trying to figure out if it is harmful and how much it will cost to clean up.
I need to come up with a dollar amount to deal with these two problems I can present to the lender, hopefully from a reputable company that they will beleive.
Any direction in this matter would be appreciated.
Re: mold and meth rehab - Posted by Chris (WI)
Posted by Chris (WI) on March 10, 2006 at 16:21:35:
Go to the local police station and ask if they can run the address through their call log and they might have a record of police activity there. If they have a narcotics officer ask him to come by the house and take a look. If it is as toxic as everyone says it is it shouldn’t be to hard to find several news stories about people being sued for selling a meth house. There are probably law firms that specialize in meth house lawsuits and they could give you some very scary ammo to use in your negotiating with the bank. IF IF IF all this worst case stuff works out you might get the house for the value of the ground less cost of demolition.
Re: mold and meth rehab - Posted by rehabber7
Posted by rehabber7 on March 10, 2006 at 09:27:39:
Jim,
There is a huge problem with meth in the area where I live. I wouldn’t take a former meth house if you gave it to me. You may be able to clean it well enough, but it will carry the stigma of having been a meth house. Depends on the disclosure laws in your state, but I would not personally feel right about not disclosing it. Where I live, I can’t imagine any buyer/tenant moving into a former meth house if they are aware of the situation, even if it has been cleaned by a “certified” company and/or certified as clean by the state. Too much risk of a lawsuit for my tastes. All that would be needed would be for a buyer/tenant to have a child who develops allergies and/or asthma, and you’ve got a lawyer on your tail. On the other hand, mold has not been an issue where I live (at least not yet). I live in the South, so we do have mold, but one could always argue that EVERY house has mold. With mold, fix the water problem, kill and clean the mold with bleach, paint over it with Kilz, and sell it.
Re: mold and meth rehab - Posted by Jack
Posted by Jack on March 10, 2006 at 08:53:07:
How do you know it was used to make drugs? What difference would that make, unless you have continued the problem? As to mold, it depends a lot on how much there is? If its just a little you can take care of that yourself. If its a lot you may have to have some service do it and guarantee it is done.
Re: mold and meth rehab - Posted by Bryan_wa
Posted by Bryan_wa on March 10, 2006 at 10:46:57:
All we saw was a bunch of bottles, which the broker that the bank sent to do the appraisal thought was used to make drugs. There wasn’t any notice at all. We just want to provide some sort of tests to the bank as a way to get them to further reduce the price…
Re: mold and meth rehab - Posted by Sean
Posted by Sean on March 10, 2006 at 09:32:20:
The chemicals used to make meth LEECH into every porous material in the house, and can be incredibly dangerous and continue to exit back out of the materials into the interior air for years… causing all sorts of problems for people exposed, especially children.
Unless you REALLY know what you are doing, or are willing to gut it to the bones and rebuild… I don’t think I would touch a known Meth lab. Even after doing all that work, you are going to STILL have to deal with the stigma.
Mold is no big deal, Meth lab… I would definately tread carefully.