COUPLE SUE OVER FORMER POT GROW-OP

House's Ex-Owners, Realtors Subject Of Suit Concerning Rural
Property

The Province A retired couple who bought a rural Quesnel property are suing
the former owners and the realtors who sold it to them because it had a
former marijuana grow-op on the premises.

Pauline Stone and Joe Brown say that before their purchase of the
property in August 2006 the vendors signed a property disclosure
statement denying that the premises had been used as a grow-op or to
manufacture illegal drugs.

They say the sellers knew or ought to have known that the
representation was false and after they agreed to buy the property
with a house and a barn, they informed the realtors they suspected the
barn had been used as a grow-op.

The couple also believed there were material deficiencies with the
buildings and the realtor agreed to rectify the problems if they
completed the sale, says a statement of claim filed in B.C. Supreme
Court.

The deficiencies have not been rectified and since the completion, the
couple says they have suffered from residual chemical pollution and
excessive mould and moisture.

"We started getting sick not too long after moving in," said Stone,
71, a mother of two and grandmother of six. "Since we've been here
we've been to the doctors more times than I care to think about with
upper-respiratory infections and breathing difficulties."

Added the 68-year-old Campbell: "We've been going through pretty horrible
moments
because this was our nest egg and we were going to be retired, no mortgage
to pay. We've
ended up in one awful mess."

The couple are suing for general, special and aggravated
damages.

Named as defendants are former owners Serena Douglas and Lynn Carole
Douglas, realtors Dale Peter Yaffe and Christine Clayton, also known
as Christine Yaffe, and Prism Realty Ltd., doing business as Royal
LePage Prism Realty.

The Douglases could not be reached.

Christine Yaffe said her father-in-law, Dale Yaffe, handled the deal
for the buyers while she acted for the sellers.

"They were the ones that actually stumbled onto the grow operation,"
she said of the buyers. "I had never seen it. I had never heard of
it."

Dale Yaffe could not be reached.

In February last year, the Real Estate Council of B.C. issued a
"consent order" finding that Dale Yaffe had committed professional
misconduct in his handling of the sale and ordered him to pay $750 in
enforcement expenses.

No statements of defence have been filed.