CITY CONSIDERS FEE TO RE-OCCUPY BUSTED GROW-OPS

More than 140 marijuana grow operations have been busted twice in the same
location since last summer, according to a city report before council
yesterday.

That's prompted the city's bylaw department to recommend charging a $100
re-occupancy fee to landlords wanting to re-rent their homes or live in
them themselves.

"We probably could have asked to charge more but we cannot use our bylaws
as a penalty; we can only charge fees to cover our costs," said Carlene
Robbins, manager of the city's bylaw administration branch.

Council was expected to pass staff's recommendation at yesterday's council
meeting.

Currently, city hall charges owners a $750 inspection fee after a home has
been busted for a grow-op in order to ensure the electrical, plumbing and
other infrastructure is up to code. Owners are required to upgrade
deficiencies before applying for a re-occupancy permit.

Robbins admits the $100 fee is not enough to dissuade anyone from setting
up a grow-op-where one plant can fetch $1,000- but says the goal is to
offset some of city hall's administration costs.

Each time city inspectors are called to investigate a grow-op and go
through the necessary inspections and paperwork to get the house open
again, it costs about $1,000, she said.

Considering 1,016 grow-ops have been busted in the city since last summer,
that's a lot of money and staff time devoted strictly to grow-ops, said
Robbins. About 98 per cent of the owners of grow-op houses apply to the
city for re-occupancy.

City statistics indicate that 20 per cent of the 1,016 grow-ops were
owner-occupied, while the remainder involved renters. In most cases,
landlords deny any knowledge of the grow-op, she said.

"'They seemed like a nice family and we had no idea about the plants' is
what we hear from landlords," said Robbins, adding city hall works closely
with the police's Grow Busters program, which began in July 2000 to shut
down the city's estimated 10,000 grow-ops.

Under the provincial residential tenancy rules, landlords have to give
tenants 24 hours notice before they can enter leased premises-unless
another provision is written into a contract signed by the owner and the
tenant, Robbins said.

To help landlords screen out tenants who could set up marijuana
grow-ops-which can destroy a home-police suggest they look for several
warning signs, such as tenants wanting to pay several months rent up front
in cash.

Landlords should ask for references, keep a record of the tenants' cars and
licence plate numbers, check on the property regularly, have the neighbours
report any suspicious activity and have a friend, relative or agent monitor
the property if they're on vacation or living in another country.

Even the most diligent can be fooled, however. A few years ago, Richmond
RCMP busted two grow-ops in houses owned by the City of Richmond-only a few
months after then-Mayor Greg Halsey-Brandt held a forum for landlords on
preventing their properties from becoming grow-ops.