You own a rental property, and your renters seem to be stellar people. But upon vacating their house, you discover that they have been cooking methamphetamine (meth) in your pristine place. The meth leaves a residue on surfaces and is difficult to clean. You may need to remove sheetrock, flooring, the ceiling, curtains, appliances, and any other porous material. These are now hazardous materials so you can’t just throw them away. Appropriate disposal is more expensive. You will likely need to hire a mitigation company. The costs are adding up, so you decide to file an insurance claim but alas, the claim is denied! Why? Smoking meth is an illegal activity and illegal activities are not typically covered by insurance. You are now out hundreds of thousands of dollars. You did dodge a bullet as cooking meth is a fire hazard and could cause a total loss of your home from a fire. A lot of people do not realize that meth contamination is not covered by most insurance companies. This is a scenario that plays out all over the country.
Why Meth is an Issue for Tenants
Meth is a highly addictive substance and is relatively easy to produce, causing it to be a serious hazard to humans and the environment. A meth contaminated property can cause serious health issues, not only to those currently living there, but to anyone renting afterwards. Children are at the greatest risk. Some of the most common symptoms noted from meth exposure are respiratory irritation, central nervous system irregularities, and skin irritations. There was a case of a family moving into a home that was a prior meth lab in Australia. At the time, they were unaware that it was a former meth lab. The home had been mandated to be cleaned up/remediated prior to selling, it but never was. It wasn’t until 7 months later that the family was notified that it had been a meth lab prior to their purchasing the home. They moved out, but all of the family members, especially the youngest child, had been adversely affected by the residual chemicals.
Why Meth is an Issue for Landlords
What other issues might you be facing? There was a case in Colorado where a mother and daughter won a $10.5 million dollar verdict after a landlord ignored complaints that they noticed a chemical smell in their apartment, and that they were experiencing adverse symptoms. Another case in Michigan states that the realtor and homeowner knowingly sold a home that was contaminated by meth. The 27-year-old suffered kidney damage among other ailments. Disclosure and not ignoring signs of meth use are essential.
Take Preventative Measures
All this to say, the earlier you can detect a problem and clean it up, the better you will be. The cost to clean up if caught early is substantially less than if the substance were allowed to remain. So how do you do that? The world's first Meth alarm was developed to detect Methamphetamine in your property and your fleet vehicles. It is a patented automatically sensing methamphetamine detector that operates in a similar way to a fire detector. The device detects the particles resulting from the use of methamphetamine. When the tamper proof detector senses methamphetamine it registers the results (in parts per million) via our cloud platform and sends an email / text message alert to property managers, facility management or the designated person to respond accordingly. By installing this unit in your rental property or fleet vehicle, you can catch this problem early and avoid the multitude of problems that can occur.
For more information on pricing & specifications go to methalarms.com/khlp.
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