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Is your tenant turning your rental into a meth lab?

Is your tenant turning your rental into a meth lab?

Is your tenant turning your rental into a meth lab?

Being in the vicinity of a meth lab puts a person at risk of personal health problems due to the chemical residues. It also affects personal safety because of the risk of an explosion. For a landlord, the cost of cleaning up a home contaminated by a meth lab could cost $10,000 or more.

 

Here are the signs you should not ignore:

 

  • Neighbors complaining of strange activity at the home, such a people coming through at all hours of the day.
  • A random abundance of common materials used for meth production, such as: cans, bottles, tubing, propane tanks, cooler, portable stoves
  • Packages of suspicious chemical substances like acetone, brake cleaner, drain cleaner, iodine, paint thinner, phosphorous, etc.
  • Strong, unpleasant smells – similar to cat urine.

 

Ask yourself, “Why does my tenant need paint thinner?” or “What IS that smell?”

 

You can purchase DIY meth detection kits online for around $50, or you can pay a professional service to perform a more comprehensive test for just under a thousand dollars. While that might seem costly, it is nothing compared to the price you will have to pay to evict, and then treat your home for contamination.

 
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meth detection kiTs*

  EMK
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Meth labs are problematic on a number of levels. Once detected and shut down by the police, it is important to establish communications with the police investigation team in order to determine what type of cook method was being used, where it was set up and how far along in the process the cook was. This information is extremely important in deciding how to remediate the unit and will help determine whether the HVAC and plumbing systems (ducts, air handlers, drains etc.) will require remediation. Also depending on local regulations, the certificate of re-occupancy may not be issued until clearance testing for volatile organics and/or drug residue is successfully completed. You will need a remedial scope of work and an agreed upon method for clearance testing in order to get the unit remediated and safely re-occupied.

  Benjamin Hestir, P.E.

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