MPP TARGETS GROW OPS

Realtors Advocate for Change

In Ontario, it's home buyers beware when it comes to indoor
marijuana farms, or grow ops.

The costs associated with remediation of a property once the stash is
seized or the owners take off, can cost upwards of $80,000 to
$100,000, said Patricia Verge, Broker at the Riverside South Royal
LePage office and the provincial director of the Eastern Ontario
Ontario Real Estate Association.

"I went into a house once with the thought of buying it and then
started sneezing," she said. "I am allergic to mold and then we
found out it had been used as a grow house, but most people with a new
coat of paint and new floors would have no idea until the problems
started."

Enter Nepean-Carleton MPP Lisa MacLeod, who held a roundtable with the
public, realtors and Ottawa Police Services in October to discuss the
problem of grow ops in the capital.

"The police told me that as many as 500 grow houses can be operating
at one time across the city," she said. "They are in Barrhaven,
Manotick and Riverside South - really everywhere - we can't just
ignore them anymore."

Three homes in Nepean were busted over the summer.

One, in the Pinecrest area at 2522 Thorson Ave. had 170 plants hauled
out in early June.

Another appeared to be a small single-family home at 21 St. Claire Ave
held 675 plants and over 413 grams of marijuana that were seized by
Ottawa Police on June 25.

According to the Ottawa Police website, high levels of humidity and
can cause the wood to warp - including stair cases, handrails, floor
finishes, roof joints and wooden studs in walls.

Growers often steal electricity, and an Ottawa police summary of the
problem says this may require drilling a hole in the foundation to
hook up illegally.

An estimate by BC Hydro, says grow ops steal about $100 million of
revenue annually.

"There's also holes in the floors and a whole host of other
problems," Verge said. "It turns out to be a real nightmare.
Imagine if you're a young family starting out in a new home, to be
faced with that would be awful."

MacLeod said there is no standard in Ontario and that homes are only
listed on the Ottawa Police website for three months.

"Most homes don't sell in that time, so we need something to
protect home buyers," she said. "We also need to get people
talking about this problem so we can bring it out in the open and fi
nd solutions," she said.

The province passed legislation in 2006 that calls on real estate
agents to disclose whether a property was used as a marijuana grow
house, assuming there are issues of safety and structural damage.

The law is currently administered by the Real Estate Council of
Ontario.

Verge said the Ontario Real Estate Association is behind MacLeod's
bill.

"Any tools we can have to fight this problem are great," she
said.

"It's not going away."