Buyers beware of Marijuana House mold residue (Denver, Durango: fit in, sales)

[Vision67]

Marijuana grows leaving more Colorado homes filled with mold
Denver police Det. Brian Matos estimates that marijuana is grown in one of every 10 homes in the city

Marijuana grow operations are leaving Colorado homes with mold

"The biggest environmental danger in homes where weed is grown is mold caused by the amount of humidity growers inject into the home. People with asthma and other respiratory problems can be severely affected by mold."

That's another good reason to hire a competent building inspector before you consider buying a used house.

[Raddo]

Originally Posted by Vision67

Marijuana grows leaving more Colorado homes filled with mold
Denver police Det. Brian Matos estimates that marijuana is grown in one of every 10 homes in the city

Marijuana grow operations are leaving Colorado homes with mold

"The biggest environmental danger in homes where weed is grown is mold caused by the amount of humidity growers inject into the home. People with asthma and other respiratory problems can be severely affected by mold."

That's another good reason to hire a competent building inspector before you consider buying a used house.

It's also a good reason to learn about how to properly grow it. There is no reason indoor growing has to cause mold, or any other household problems for that matter.

[DurangoJoe]

Growing cannabis properly in it's own space & doing it right involves a constant need to ventilate properly. In small spaces, there should be exhaust fans running 24/7 to remove humidity. Anybody who doesn't get this is asking for trouble due to excess humidity. Have done many closet grows using hydroponics and never had an issue with mold or excess humidity. Environmental controls are moderately priced and commonly available. No excuse to not use them and properly monitor the grow space. This is not unique to cannabis. Anybody that wants to grow any kinds of plants in a small space in their house needs to deal with humidity & other environmental issues. Failing to anticipate and plan for removing humidity is just plan stupid.

[sunsprit]

this has become a significant enough issue in the area that insurance companies (and property management companies) are sending out field inspectors to check for grow operations in residential properties.

It comes back to the insurance companies not wanting to be liable for the damage to the residence or the prospect of liability/medical claims.

For many residential insurance companies writing homeowner's policies in Colorado, if they find a grow operation in a property, they will cancel existing policies or refuse to write renewals or new ones.

While DurangoJoe makes it sound simple to mitigate the moisture issues, the reality is that few people do so. If you have a residence with several adults living in it and each entitled to grow a nominal amount of weed per person, the total grow operation humidity load on a residence can easily overwhelm the capacity of the interior finish to deal with it.

Friends with a property management company have found over 50% of the residences under their contract have had grow operations inside. They have had to specify that they are not allowed per the lease terms and grounds for eviction ... even though the growing is legal. It simply isn't compatible with the finish materials used in most residences compared to a greenhouse operation.

I'm one of those landlords that had my property insurance cancelled due to tenants growing operations. There was a nominal amount of damage inside the house, fortunately, it was able to be mitigated and repaired. But other landlords I know have had houses torn down due to the overwhelming damage/mold problem that had taken place. Of course, there's no compensation from the insurance companies for such damage to the residence, the landlords had to seek money from the former tenants (most of them don't have the resources to sue against).

Buyer beware. Do a very thorough inspection before making an offer on any residence, or specify in the sales contract that the seller is responsible for any such problem in the house before closing on it.

[Ghengis]

[Vision67]

Oh the joys of being a landlord.

No Thanks!

Perhaps this another contributing factor causing the high rents.

[MrRational]

Originally Posted by Vision67

Marijuana grows leaving more Colorado homes filled with mold
Denver police Det. Brian Matos estimates that marijuana is grown in one of every 10 homes in the city

That's another good reason to hire a competent building inspector before you consider buying a used house.

It's another good reason to allow open air growing.
FARM the stuff at ten or fifty or more acres at a time.

Originally Posted by sunsprit

It comes back to the insurance companies not wanting to be liable for the damage
to the residence or the prospect of liability/medical claims.

It comes back to a collusion between the 'growers' and the legislature
that prevents 'legal mj' from being actually legal and by that propping up the black market prices.

[Rainbow Demon]

Bingo, Mr. Rational. Once the State realized the cash to be made...rather than just OK'ing home grows and possession in the home and making ALL sales a FELONY...the State went for a retail/tax scheme that keeps the profit in the game across the board. In essence, the State is now the Black Market. (if you buy cannabis products from them, which we don't/never will)

I owned a house for 25 years and grew in it for most of that time. My grow was in the crawlspace and vented directly outside.

When we decided to sell and move from the area, I tore down the room and cleaned everything up. Or so I thought.

As indicated above, the home inspector was very thorough. He noticed 3 remaining staples in the floor joice. One had a small bit of mylar stuck under it. This was all he needed to tag my residence as a "grow house". Not that I really cared...but it was far from what I would call a "grow house". You guys who grow know the kinda folks I'm speaking of. SMH.

Yes, they found mold. It was found where...according to the guy in the white suit who came at a price to inspect/detect AND eradicate (what a scam)...most mold in Colorado is found in houses...in the attic...right next to the ceiling joice. He already knew the situation and that I grew there over the years...so I asked him if he though that the mold he found was caused by growing weed and he said "No....it';s a common problem in the majority of houses here in the mountains where we have extensive snow cover on the roof for months at a time". He found no other mold in the home.

Yet....tagged as a "grow house"....there wasn't much we could do but absorb the 13K bill that followed to mitigate the problem.

Fortunately, after owning the house for 25 years in an ever-rising real estate market...we didn't even feel it. We paid the bill and moved on.....and I counted my lucky stars we didn't have any more "fun" than that over the 25 year period we lived there.

so yeah.....you may find some mold here in Colorado....but most of it isn't from growing weed. That's just a convenient scapegoat/a trendy thing to tag it all onto....and another reason to charge far more than the job of mitigation is worth.

be safe out there guys....

[LHS79]

Originally Posted by sunsprit

this has become a significant enough issue in the area that insurance companies (and property management companies) are sending out field inspectors to check for grow operations in residential properties.

It comes back to the insurance companies not wanting to be liable for the damage to the residence or the prospect of liability/medical claims.

For many residential insurance companies writing homeowner's policies in Colorado, if they find a grow operation in a property, they will cancel existing policies or refuse to write renewals or new ones.

While DurangoJoe makes it sound simple to mitigate the moisture issues, the reality is that few people do so. If you have a residence with several adults living in it and each entitled to grow a nominal amount of weed per person, the total grow operation humidity load on a residence can easily overwhelm the capacity of the interior finish to deal with it.

Friends with a property management company have found over 50% of the residences under their contract have had grow operations inside. They have had to specify that they are not allowed per the lease terms and grounds for eviction ... even though the growing is legal. It simply isn't compatible with the finish materials used in most residences compared to a greenhouse operation.

I'm one of those landlords that had my property insurance cancelled due to tenants growing operations. There was a nominal amount of damage inside the house, fortunately, it was able to be mitigated and repaired. But other landlords I know have had houses torn down due to the overwhelming damage/mold problem that had taken place. Of course, there's no compensation from the insurance companies for such damage to the residence, the landlords had to seek money from the former tenants (most of them don't have the resources to sue against).

Buyer beware. Do a very thorough inspection before making an offer on any residence, or specify in the sales contract that the seller is responsible for any such problem in the house before closing on it.

SMART landlords have in the lease that the furnace filters and smoke detectors will be inspected YEARLY and that usually will take care of issues you may not be aware of like pets and especially a large scale grow operation.

Did you just get the rent checks and not give a crap about how the house was being maintained?

If so you were a "slumlord" and not a good landlord. The neighbors would appreciate you selling the rental if that is the case.

[KSinmyrearviewmirror]

I've been anticipating the This Old House episode where Richard Trethewey's two sons fly out to Colorado to retrofit a state-of-the-art grow room into my house.