LANDLORDS BEAR DRUG BYLAW'S BRUNT

Rental owners feel they will face added hardship if the Township's
proposed drug-house bylaw goes ahead.

As Langley Township and other local communities toughen their bylaws
against drug houses, local landlords are finding themselves under
more pressure than usual.

The Township is looking at a new bylaw to condemn homes used as drug
labs or grow houses until all damage is repaired, and also to note
former grow ops on the land title registry.

While local politicians try to use bylaws to crack down on marijuana
or methamphetamine production, landlords have mixed feelings about
the regulations.

"Our industry is not particularly supportive of bylaws that penalize
landlords," said Al Kemp, the CEO of the Rental Owners and Managers
Association of B.C.

The problem of drugs is more of a political and judicial issue than a
municipal one, Kemp said. If there is going to be a real decrease in
the number of grow operations in the Lower Mainland, it will have to
be led by tougher laws and sentences for dealers and growers, he believes.

Local landlords are already doing a lot to keep out growers and drug
labs, Kemp said.

Laura Thompson owns nine properties, eight of them residential,
around the Lower Mainland.

"We have never been affected, but only because we're very diligent," she said.

She tells all potential renters that she will make monthly
inspections, and she follows through.

"We go there every 30 days without fail," Thompson said.

She has seen more than a few suspicious characters suddenly lose
interest in renting her properties when she told them about the
frequent inspections. She believes she scared off pot growers.

Even without a grow operation, the damage a bad tenant can inflict on
a property can be severe, Thompson said. She recently spent $15,000
fixing up a house that was torn up by a tenant's large dog.

While that kind of bill gives landlords a good incentive to watch out
for marijuana growers, it isn't enough, Thompson said.

She said she understands why municipal governments put the blame on
landlords, who should be diligent.

"At the same time, there are scams out there that will get you," she said.

There are stories of families with children who rent buildings, only
to turn over the keys to drug growers, then vanish.

The main tool landlords need to keep grow ops out of their buildings
can be summed up in two words, said Kemp: "It's called tenant selection."

Finding apparently good tenants is easy, but deterring the bad ones,
and sorting out which ones might be faking their references and
backgrounds can be more difficult.

Landlords need to develop interviewing skills and to look into more
than what the prospective tenants give them, Kemp said. He regularly
gives three hour seminars on tenant selection.

Like Thompson, Kemp believes regular inspections are a key component
of keeping out drug growers.

It takes about three months to get a crop of marijuana to grow from
seedling to harvest-ready plant. If a landlord drops by every two to
three months, and lets his tenants know it, growers won't bother to
rent there, Kemp said.

Some landlords do knowingly rent their buildings to marijuana
growers, and may even be accomplices in the drug trade, Kemp said.

"That landlord should be handcuffed with the grower and they should
both be headed to jail," Kemp said.