BUYER BEWARE OF GROW-OPS

Dozens Of Busted Marijuana Operations, Many Not Fit For Human
Habitation

Real estate agent Don Routliffe represented a homebuyer a while back
who had his eye on a $200,000 house in a nice section of South Windsor.

The crib looked good from the outside. But when Routliffe got wind of
what may have been on the inside, he advised his client to stay away.

"We didn't even look at it," the sales agent with Buckingham Realty
said Friday about the house that had been used as a marijuana grow
operation.

"Personally I wouldn't even list one."

Routliffe heard about the home's history by chance, through the real
estate grapevine. But there may come a day soon when a central
database is created of homes once used to make drugs, so potential
buyers can have inspectors look for mould and electrical or structural
damage.

"You don't know what's behind the drywall," Routliffe said. Such homes
need to be gutted -- the drywall ripped down and the insulation
removed. "Potentially, there are too many problems."

The Ontario government -- which is studying the registry idea -- has
given police, municipalities and power companies more clout in the
fight against such homes. Local hydro companies now are allowed to cut
off power to a house -- without the approval of the Electrical Safety
Authority -- for the sake of safety or system reliability.

Because grow-ops typically use large amounts of electricity, they are
a fire hazard. To make a house suitable for cultivating marijuana,
significant changes are made to the home's structure. High intensity
lighting is needed to grow the plants, so many home grow-operations
bypass the electricity meter.

The house becomes mouldy and uninhabitable for future residents
because of the need to keep the plants drenched with water.

Mayor Eddie Francis said the city is ahead of the province on the idea
of a registry because the Windsor Police Service -- of which he is
chairman -- identifies grow-ops and lists addresses when arrests are
made. "The reason we did that is so people are aware when they're
buying a home," he said.

In 2004 there were 35 busts of grow-ops. That dipped to 23 the
following year.

There have been nine busts so far this year. The homes can be found in
any area of the city, sometimes they're prevalent in upper-middle
class neighbourhoods where the homes are bigger and allow a larger
capacity for growing marijuana.

"People would be surprised," Francis said. "They're all over the
place. They're in neighbourhoods. They're not just in bad
neighbourhoods."

Tom Kosnik, president of Enwin, Windsor's power company, said the
agency lost about $100,000 in revenue last year resulting from
grow-ops that avoided power charges. But that estimate just comes from
homes known to be grow-ops. The figure is likely higher. "We don't
know at any time who's stealing power," Kosnik said.

He applauds the government initiative, because it has "empowered us to
deal with the safety factor" and shut down operations by cutting off
power when they're discovered.

Francis said the new legislation also forces landlords to "bring the
building up to code" before they're allowed to rent it out again.