METH CAUSING PROBLEMS FOR REAL ESTATE AGENTS, LANDLORDS

POCATELLO, Idaho (AP) - The manufacture of methamphetamine is causing
problems for landlords and real estate agents.

Property managers Todd and Jerri Bohn already have spent thousands of
dollars cleaning an apartment they suspect housed a methamphetamine lab --
or at the very least was a place to do drugs.

Bohn Properties Inc. spent more than $5,000 cleaning the 300-square-foot
studio apartment.

In the past month, Pocatello police have raided more than six meth labs.

And the fact that authorities have difficulty tracing the labs causes
problems for real estate agents and landlords.

The potential liability is enormous, says Russell Duke, health and
safety manager for the Idaho Department of Health & Welfare.

"If a landlord doesn't take proper steps to clean an apartment before it is
reoccupied and there is a child in the apartment and that child gets sick,
the parents can sue," Duke said. "The cost of resolving the lawsuit could
far outweigh the time and money it takes to clean up a lab."

Nick Kris manages about 70 rentals in Pocatello and Blackfoot and although
he has avoided labs popping up in his rentals, he remains terrified of the
possibility.

Kris has tried to turn to insurance companies. He has been searching for a
company that will insure him in case he is forced to clean up a meth lab in
one of his properties.

"Not one of them will help," he said.

Real estate agents are required by law to reveal if a particular home they
are selling has ever been used as a meth lab.