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I had the opportunity to invite a speaker who owns a crime scene cleanup company to one of my meetings. He is a homicide detective and created this business after retiring from law enforcement.
Needless to say he handles the grossest situations, from decomposing bodies to animal hoarders houses.
He is a great and interesting speaker with fascinating photos...
He was asked if there was anything he would not handle at any price.
His answer: Yes, a meth lab decontamination. His professional opinion was that no amount of money could compensate for the risk to his health or the health of his workers.
That was sobering.
What difference does it make what a house was used for before a new owner takes over.
If it was a drug house, or smokers, or a mass murderer, so what. Once the old people move out and new people move in the house takes over a whole new vibe.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Besides the obvious cleanup issues, the tenant is often forced out by the eviction process, and not jailed. I have seen two cases where they later returned and shot up the place in revenge for being evicted. Fortunately they both happened at night while the place was still vacant, so it was just a matter of replacing windows and filling bullet holes, but I personally wouldn't want to live there and have to worry about that happening after I moved in.
One of the factors of not wanting to purchase a home that has been a meth lab, even if the chemical resisdue has been mitigated, is that most people proabably fear that drug addicts may continue to come around wanting to buy meth.
There is so much home inventory on the market, why take risks with a meth house?
I'll restart this thread. I read an article on this recently and is interesting.
I do not know very much about these things but where I live in SC you hear about meth labs fairly often---often when they catch fire or a big mess needs to be cleaned up when they are found. I do wonder what one does as a seller if say you had rented a condo or house you own and the tenant had contaminated the property by manufacturing the drug on site (and dumping the waste on site too as we often hear about too).
I would think it would pose a massive headache for the seller--would insurance cover such a cleanup?
I read about a case here where people were manufacturing meth in a secluded area, in a shack which was on someone else's property without their knowledge. I wonder what happens in such a case where damage has been done by contamination.
Also, since these toxins can stay around for so long what happens if you find evidence of such contamination after you've bought a property...say some time later you are preparing it for sale?
(I had rented a house I own for a while but I have no reason to believe this was ever done there, but I am curious about this topic as I will be buying another house soon).
Last edited by Austin023; 09-20-2013 at 05:23 AM..
And what goes into a decontamination of a former meth lab home? What risks are there for the current tenants/owners that didn't know it was a meth lab home?
And what goes into a decontamination of a former meth lab home? What risks are there for the current tenants/owners that didn't know it was a meth lab home?
There are a few good article on how the cleaning/decontamination process is generally done and how it can effect property owners:
As you can see it is typically pretty expensive to decontaminate a house or property that has been ruined by methamphetamine manufacture. The third article touches on landlords, insurance and liability.
I wouldn't buy one. The stigma remains no matter how well you clean.
If you rent it out, you can be sued over any health issues in the children whether they are meth related or not. A baby is born autistic in your cleaned up house? Guess what. You are getting sued over it and the jury, which has no scientific or medical training is going to award a huge award to the parents of that child.
The soil in the yard is often contaminated, too. So you get to dig up all the dirt, pay for biohazzard disposal, and buy yards and yards of new dirt and then redo the landscaping.
Just don't do it and if you have rentals screen really thoroughly to try to keep those meth manufacturers out.
I'm waiting for a gang member to come on and make a thread about how a house being a crackhouse shouldn't be a bad thing.
If they're doing their own drug like most dealers do nowadays (which violates that old movie credo portraying dealers as having enough self-control not to use and get hooked on what you sell), they probably can't focus enough to make up their minds on which forum to post it in. Should it be in Non-Romantic Relationships? Economics? Real Estate? How about Rural and Small Town Living? True Crime? Work and Employment? Hey, I'm always higher than a kite...how about Aviation?
Don't just be on the lookout for former meth labs though, grow houses have their own set of liabilities in addition to the constant high temperatures from the lamps there's:
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