GROW-OPS MUST NOW BE DISCLOSED

B.C. Real Estate Association will amend property disclosure rules

Selling a home that's been used as a drug lab or marijuana growing operation
will now be a lot more difficult thanks to changes made this week by the
B.C. Real Estate Association.

On Friday, the association announced it will change its property disclosure
statement-which is part of all real estate transactions-to include two
questions (one for residential properties, the other for strata titles) that
will identify if the home has been used to grow or manufacture illegal
drugs.

Police believe the move will encourage property owners to keep a closer tab
on their properties because a drug manufacturing history will likely hurt
the property value. It will also create another headache for criminals, some
of whom actually build their own houses with the intent to grow drugs and
then sell the property.

David Herman, president of the B.C. Real Estate Association, said realtors
want safe communities and this initiative is a step in the right direction.
"Hopefully this will help (police) with their work on this front."

Herman said there are an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 marijuana grow ops in
the province.

Marijuana grow ops and drug labs can cause extensive damage to a home and
expose it to toxic chemicals. Since the disclosure statement is part of the
legal contract of sale, this could provide an avenue for buyers who make a
discovery after the sale has completed to sue the previous owner, Herman
said. "We had a lot of positive feedback about this step not just from our
real estate boards, but from the public."

B.C. Solicitor General Rich Coleman, who heads up the province's residential
tenancy branch, told The Richmond Review Friday that he's prepared to make
changes to ensure tenants are protected too.

"I think it's fair ball that that should be disclosed. I'm prepared to add
that to the standard form tenancy agreement. I'll be asking my staff to look
at how to do that."

Before making any changes and to ensure it's done right, Coleman said he'll
also be consulting the Tenants Rights Action Coalition and the B.C. Owners
and Managers Association

Coleman said a recent series of changes were made to the Residential Tenancy
Act, which included giving owners the right to evict tenants for illegal
activity. This was done with grow ops in mind.

However, the issue of protecting tenants didn't come up, he said.

Herman cautioned that homebuyers should still perform an independent
inspection of properties they are considering.

The idea to add illegal drug labs to the disclosure form, Herman said, came
from a suggestion made by Richmond RCMP Supt. Ward Clapham during an
interview with The Richmond Review.

"I've got to thank...the paper for putting that public," Clapham said
Friday. "I think it will have a huge impact in the area of willful
blindness," he said, referring to property owners who ignore what's
happening inside their rentals. "Now there's a responsibility for them that
wasn't there before."

"Hat's off to the real estate board for helping us out dealing with this
problem."

While this move will protect home buyers, renters are still left out in the
cold as landlords are not required to inform them of a property's history
regarding grow ops and drug labs.

In one case last month, a Richmond family who had recently moved into a
rental home on Linfield Gate, was victimized by a group of grow rippers who
kicked in the house's front door around dinner time. The house had a
marijuana grow-op history, but that information was never relayed to the
family, who said they never would have rented the place had they known.

Clapham said he would like to see renters protected and informed in the same
way as buyers will now be.

"That fits in with the spirit of what we're talking about today."

B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell agrees.

"Obviously we don't want that type of thing happening," Campbell said of
families renting former grow-ops and becoming the victims of grow rippers.
"Tenants...deserve to know."

The Canadian Real Estate Association pitched the idea of changes to the
property disclosure form early last year. In December, both the Greater
Vancouver Real Estate Board and its Fraser Valley counterpart urged the B.C.
Real Estate Association to consider those changes.