GETTING ACCESS TO A HOUSE'S HISTORY

Finding out the history of a particular house can be a little tricky
for home-buyers.

But it's a crucial part of any buyer's due diligence to ensure a home
has never been used as a marijuana grow-operation, or a meth lab,
said Mayor Clint Hames.

Although there are strict standards in place under the BC Building
Code covering structural repairs after a drug operation has been
dismantled, there are none for environmental issues, such as making
sure the home is free of mould, moisture, fungus and pesticides.

"We can't point to any numbers or standards. It's not a flaw, these
standards just don't yet exist either provincially or at the federal
level," the mayor said. "That's an area we have to look at."

Hames was invited to be a guest speaker at the forum hosted by the
Fraser Valley Real Estate Board last Thursday in Langley. He shared
some stories about what Chilliwack and the Fraser Valley Regional
District has been doing to thwart drug operations in their communities.

About 80 realtors and local government reps from across the Fraser
Valley attended the half-day forum. A white paper was presented on
the impacts of illegal drug operations, and what's being done to
address them, said FVREB president Kelvin Neufeld.

"One of the concrete results from the forum is that we're forming a
task force to take action in a collective way," he said. "If we do
this, there's a sense it's going to help people's quality of life,
and peace of mind."

Part of the goal will be to come up with a more unified and effective
process of reporting and remediation, for municipalities dealing with
former illegal drug operations.

"What we found is that regulations in various communities are all
over the map on this," he said.

The lack of common standards has become a huge concern for industry
and government, as well as unsuspecting home-owners, he said.

"A few years ago we decided we needed a standardized way to go to a
local government and determine if a house was ever a grow-op or
illegal drug operation of any kind," Neufeld said. "One we started
looking into it, we also found there were no standard methods of remediation."

The kind of environmental remediation he's talking about is
everything from assessing indoor air quality, or cleaning carpets, to
removing mould, moisture and chemical residues.

"We have the obligation to disclose information about a former drug
operation, but if we don't have access to that information, how do we
disclose it?" he asked rhetorically.

That sticking point was key for Hames as well, in terms of homeowner
protection.

"The real issue for me is, what does an owner do when a property
operated as a grow-op in the past that was never busted, and maybe
was covered up at some point?" the mayor said. "The question is
already on the disclosure form about whether it was ever used for
illegal purposes.

"If a seller denies it, and it turns out there was a history, there
are mechanisms to sue. But it's definitely an area we need to work
on, the nebulous area of developing hygiene standards."

The structural aspects are well-covered under the building code,
since a no-occupancy order is issued by bylaw enforcement soon after
the operation is dismantled, and the residence cannot be re-occupied
until a building inspection is conducted and it's declared fit for
human habitation again.

In Chilliwack, potential home-buyers have to file a
freedom-of-information (FOI) request to see what the city file on the
property contains, Hames said. They can also hire a home inspector to
look at the mould or moisture levels, or talk to the neighbours in the area.

"It's really a question of due diligence," he said.

The City of Chilliwack is somewhat "ahead of the game" on the topic,
since once a grow-op is discovered and dismantled, for example, the
property must be fully remediated, or a Section 58 notice is placed
on the land title.

"So a prospective purchaser comes along and has the comfort of
knowing it meets the BC Building Code ,Ai or it doesn't because
there's notice placed on title."

There's one detail that's causing some difficulty, Hames explained,
namely that interested parties in Chilliwack have to go the FOI route
to get access to the city file on a property.

"They say it's a cumbersome way to do it," he offered.

But overall the forum was a great way to bridge "the information gap"
that some communities are facing, he said.

"The most interesting thing about the forum is the real estate
industry has started working much closer with local governments on on
quality of life issues. And that's exciting."