Heads up on purchasing a former growing operations, ie, in Kelowna

If you could buy a “fixer-upper” at a really good price, should you do it? What if that “fixer-upper” is a former marijuana-growing operation?

You can get former growing operations at bargain-basement prices — sold off by banks or homeowners. They are available across the country, in almost every community, and they sure look like a good deal. But are they?

A former marijuana-growing operation might look absolutely normal from the street. In fact, you might go through one at a real-estate open house and not be aware of its past, and if it’s been cleaned up superficially. But what you can’t see is the structure, HVAC and electrical that might have been modified to the point where the house is dangerous.

Realtors and sellers are supposed to disclose the fact if they know the house was a growing operation. That’s now the law pretty much everywhere. Every house that’s a known growing operation has to have that history attached to all future sales. Vendors have to reveal that information, which makes sense — we don’t want innocent homebuyers to end up with a can of worms.

Still, there are houses out there that might have been used as growing operations and there’s no paper trail. May be the growers moved on before they were busted, so there’s no police record of the address. Maybe they were marijuana growing operations before the law required the seller to disclose. The damage to the house is still there. The visible evidence has probably been covered over, but who knows what might be behind those walls or in the attic?

What happens in a growing operation? Why is it a problem for your house?

Thousands of marijuana seedlings and plants are set up everywhere— I mean everywhere — in the house. They are watered constantly and fed heavily and kept under strong grow lights to make them grow as quickly as possible.

Not only will the water do surface damage to all flooring, the huge amount of moisture in the air will inevitably cause condensation, which will lead to mould growth. This will be surface mould on the walls and ceilings, which can easily be seen— or covered up with a fresh coat of paint. Mould also will be behind the drywall or plaster on the studs and sheathing, and the only way to find that is to take down the drywall and look behind it. And the only way to get rid of it is to remediate — and that’s a big job. If you don’t do a mould remediation, you risk your health.

Apart from mould, there are probably electrical problems caused by overloaded circuits or bypassed meters used to run the grow lights. The excess moisture everywhere probably led to rotten wood somewhere in the structure and the HVAC system was likely compromised in order to vent the odours and condensation.

There might even be excavations through the foundation walls to access hydro supply, crawl spaces or garages. Not to mention the environmental damage from chemical pesticides, fertilizers and fungicides that get flushed down the drain.

The extent of the damage would depend on the size of the growing operation and on how long it operated.

Any of those problems taken alone is enough to keep you from buying a former growing operation. Now, what if you had all of them? Would you be prepared to repair the problems before you could live in the house? You’d have to, in order to get an occupancy permit from the municipality, or to get house insurance.

Most municipalities are going to require you to have all kinds of testing done and documented before the house can be lived in, or sold. They need to be cleaned up and made safe for future owners — protecting both their health and their investment.

Would I buy a former marijuana growing operation? I would — but that’s me. I’m a professional builder, with knowledge and experience. In a house, any thing can be fixed — if you’ve got the money and the expertise. There’s nothing to be afraid of. But that’s not the same for the average home owner.

Make sure the cost of fixing it up again doesn’t add up to more than what you are ‘‘saving’’’ in the purchase.

A complete remediation might cost more than $100,000 — are you saving money? Is the price of the house reduced enough to cover your costs?

If you go into the deal with your eyes wide open, and are clear about what the worst-case scenario might be — and believe me, it might be very, very bad — it might work out just fine.

If you buy a former growing operation, and you’ve fixed it up, make sure you document every step of the process: record every permit, all work done, all mould remediation. This is proof for future resale of the house that the repairs have been made.

(Source: "Former growing operations should be fixed by the pros" prepared by Mike Holmes/Vancouver Sun/January 8, 2010)