INSPECTION COSTS COULD FALL TO OWNERS

Making property owners pay for inspections after tenants are busted
for growing marijuana is like fining a car company for traffic
violations in cars leased by customers, says a group of property managers.

And they warn rents will rise if the city goes ahead with a proposal
at Monday's community and protective services committee to charge
property owners $457 for inspecting homes and apartments after a
marijuana grow-op is shut down.

"While this is fair for the individual property owner who breaks the
law, it is not fair to the city's landlords," says the letter
submitted by the London Property Managers' Association.

"If I lease a new Ford Mustang . . . and I get caught driving that
vehicle at 150 km-h and cause an accident, is Ford responsible for
paying the speeding ticket and for the cost of repairs? Absolutely
not. This is my responsibility as the leaseholder. This applies just
as equally to the tenant-landlord relationship."

The Municipal Act requires municipalities to inspect former grow-ops.
It takes an average of five hours to inspect a building that housed a
grow-op: checking the electrical system, structure and looking for
health concerns, such as mould or other toxins.

Grow-ops appear to be on the rise. Police busted 32 operations in
2008, 42 in 2009 and are on pace to bust 50 this year - many in
single-family homes, but also in apartments and even retail malls and
old factories.

Controller Gord Hume raised the issue at a recent police services
board meeting.

"I'm absolutely in favour," said Hume, adding the increasing number of
marijuana grow-ops is becoming a "big, big issue in London and all
large" cities.

"This is a very legitimate cost recovery for the city. These are
dangerous operations for neighbours, causing big problems for
communities and there are huge health issues. There's a responsibility
there by the owner."

In the letter, the LPMA agreed grow-ops are a major problem in
communities."Those in favour of this (new bylaw) will argue that
landlords should have suspected and checked for the existence of the
(grow-op). The problem is that landlords face significant challenges
in initially identifying these types of operations."

Landlords aren't allowed to make "unjustified inspections" of a
tenant's home and today have little contact with them except when
making inspections of smoke alarms or when called to make repairs.

The association said the only way landlords can recoup the fee is to
raise rents across the board.

"It is not fair to force landlords to absorb these costs and pass them
on to new tenants," the letter says. "It is even less fair to ask
these same tenants to foot the bill when the benefits are to the
community as a whole."

Instead, the association says all taxpayers should absorb the cost.