Renting a house that was previously used for growing cannabis

donna14 · 26-10-2011 4:15pm #1

Hey everyone. We are looking to rent a house in a particular area and went to view one today. When I got home I googled the address and seen that the previous tenant had been growing cannabis in the attic (about 10k worth when he was caught) so now i'm wondering if that could have caused any kind of damage to the house? Is there anything we should look out for when we go back to view it again?

Raytown Rocks · 26-10-2011 4:21pm

Outstanding electricity bills maybe.

Snakeblood · 26-10-2011 4:25pm

donna14 wrote: »

Hey everyone. We are looking to rent a house in a particular area and went to view one today. When I got home I googled the address and seen that the previous tenant had been growing cannabis in the attic (about 10k worth when he was caught) so now i'm wondering if that could have caused any kind of damage to the house? Is there anything we should look out for when we go back to view it again?

I'd be hunting for the stash.

Victor · 26-10-2011 4:37pm

chef wrote: »

Outstanding electricity bills maybe.

In both* meanings of the word.

* "Unpaid" and/or "huge".

Ray Palmer · 26-10-2011 4:43pm

Some big attic or maybe just maybe the usual exageration of street value:rolleyes:

Zamboni · 27-10-2011 10:05am

Personally I would not touch the place.

You have no idea what undesireables are aware of the address and may not be up to date on who is and isn't living there.

27-10-2011 10:10am

Might want to inform the cops if you move in or you could get an unexpected 5am raid!

dearg lady · 27-10-2011 10:22am

I don't think it would be much of an issue. If you moved in you would provide a meter reading for electricity and you would only owe from that reading. Might be no harm, as geeby says, to let the cops know you are newl living there.
I seriously doubt there'd be any 'undesirables' showing up at your door tbh.

Zamboni · 27-10-2011 10:36am

dearg lady wrote: »

I seriously doubt there'd be any 'undesirables' showing up at your door tbh.

You must have a far greater in depth knowledge of drug manufacturing, distribution and personnel in this country than I do then.
Over the years I've seen people have to leave property simply because of mistaken identity.
A tarnish like that does not leave a property for years if not decades and imo is not worth the 'potential' hassle.

donna14 · 27-10-2011 10:48am

thanks for the replies guys

the newspaper article states he was growing it to help the pain of a back injury :rolleyes: :rolleyes: When we were viewing the house it looked as though it hadn't been lived in for a while, and the guy was in court about the case earlier this year, so im guessing he got kicked out after they found out what he was up to. Im not overly concerned with someone showing up at the house for that reason (im sure they know its vacant by now) but i was wondering if growing it could have damaged the house in any way? Id imagine since it was in the attic there was no proper ventilation and all that heat..maybe mold? We didnt go up to the attic when we viewed it but the rooms all looked okay apart from some flaking paint on the ceilings.

Edit: Also, if we do decide to go ahead and rent this house, could we ask for a reduction based on it previously being used for growing marijuana and having a "tarnished" name or would that be laughed at? I dont think the case too well known (a relative lives a few doors down and had no idea it happened) but a search of the address does bring up information about the case.

dearg lady · 27-10-2011 10:48am

Zamboni wrote: »

You must have a far greater in depth knowledge of drug manufacturing, distribution and personnel in this country than I do then.
Over the years I've seen people have to leave property simply because of mistaken identity.
A tarnish like that does not leave a property for years if not decades and imo is not worth the 'potential' hassle.

ehhh, nope, but it's only 10k worth of cannabis AT MOST(given these things are often overestimated) with such a small amount it would probably be used for personal and for selling to friends.

dearg lady · 27-10-2011 10:51am

donna14 wrote: »

thanks for the replies guys the newspaper article states he was growing it to help the pain of a back injury :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

....don't get drawn in...debate for another day....

donna14 wrote: »

When we were viewing the house it looked as though it hadn't been lived in for a while, and the guy was in court about the case earlier this year, so im guessing he got kicked out after they found out what he was up to. Im not overly concerned with someone showing up at the house for that reason (im sure they know its vacant by now) but i was wondering if growing it could have damaged the house in any way? Id imagine since it was in the attic there was no proper ventilation and all that heat..maybe mold? We didnt go up to the attic when we viewed it but the rooms all looked okay apart from some flaking paint on the ceilings.

Best bet if you're concerned is to have a look around the attic. Was it deffo not ventilated?

srsly78 · 27-10-2011 10:56am

donna14 wrote: »

thanks for the replies guys the newspaper article states he was growing it to help the pain of a back injury :rolleyes: :rolleyes: When we were viewing the house it looked as though it hadn't been lived in for a while, and the guy was in court about the case earlier this year, so im guessing he got kicked out after they found out what he was up to. Im not overly concerned with someone showing up at the house for that reason (im sure they know its vacant by now) but i was wondering if growing it could have damaged the house in any way? Id imagine since it was in the attic there was no proper ventilation and all that heat..maybe mold? We didnt go up to the attic when we viewed it but the rooms all looked okay apart from some flaking paint on the ceilings.

Edit: Also, if we do decide to go ahead and rent this house, could we ask for a reduction based on it previously being used for growing marijuana and having a "tarnished" name or would that be laughed at? I dont think the case too well known (a relative lives a few doors down and had no idea it happened) but a search of the address does bring up information about the case.

Actually no. They would need proper ventilation for growing, very important. Also most growers are very paranoid and wouldn't advertise their location, so little chance of people calling to the door. Gaff is probably fine, just make sure you inspect it thoroughly.

Also lol at the gaff being "tarnished" because someone grew a few plants in the attic

donna14 · 27-10-2011 10:57am

dearg lady wrote: »

....don't get drawn in...debate for another day....

Best bet if you're concerned is to have a look around the attic. Was it deffo not ventilated?

Im not 100% sure to be honest, if we go to view it again I will be sure to check the attic out, im just not sure what to look out for (if anything) other than mold/damp!

donna14 · 27-10-2011 11:00am

srsly78 wrote: »

Actually no. They would need proper ventilation for growing etc. Also most growers are very paranoid and wouldn't advertise their location, so little chance of people calling to the door. Gaff is probably fine, just make sure you inspect it thoroughly.

Ah just shows how clueless I am on such things

TBH, I don't think the guy was a big criminal or anything it was moreso the condition of the house that I was worried about, I wasnt sure if it could have caused any damage to the house that maybe we wouldn't notice at first. thanks a million! Other than that incident its a really nice house so we were hoping it would be okay to go ahead and take it

Rabidlamb · 27-10-2011 3:44pm

€10k's worth was probably about 3 plants worth OP the way the cops exaggerate their brilliance.
Maybe they did you a favour & insulated under the roof felt.
Can't have that snow covered roof melting when it's -5 outside.
Give me back my house

tricky D · 27-10-2011 4:11pm

A bit of exaggeration going on here. A 10k Garda valuation in an attic is not some major criminal industrial operation. A dozen plants would be the absolute max. I would note it for your surveyor to check out.

MrDerp · 28-10-2011 1:59pm

1 female plant should yield about half a pound using hydroponic methods, which is 8oz giving up to 2100 street value. That makes 5 female plants, possibly as little as 3/4 given Garda embellishment of street value. If there was already buds on the plants, then the males had been removed and possibly destroyed to avoid seeding the females.

With this in mind, in relation to your concerns:

1. We're therefore talking about probably 1 x 1000W lamp, on constantly, so while this isn't gonna have the astronomical ESB bill of a grow-house, we're talking about 1500 odd kWh ( (24 x 0.25kW x 60) + some odd bit for water filtration etc) on each 2 month bill. 1500 units at, on average, about 16 cents (between night/day rates) per unit is 1600 is about 240 euro per 2 month bill. If we assume he was growing for a while, then the bills have been averaging about 300 euro a pop, presumably easily paid for by his selling surplus weed.

What I'd be careful of here is that the ESB will estimate a lot of bills, and that's automatically generated from past bills at the same time of year, so while you can submit a reading yourself, you'd want to make sure you didn't get some shock bill at some point that hit arrears before you could sort out the mix up.

2. 10,000 euro is the magic figure that defines drug trafficking, carrying the 10 years minimum mandatory sentence. So while it's small change in terms of a grow operation, on paper that was a big criminal. The house is on pulse. If you have a party and it gets reported to the gardai, when they check the address it'll say former grow-house. Might create unnecessary hassle.

I wouldn't be worried about undesirables calling over. Weed smokers generally aren't escaped lunatics, I was a smoker, and I knew plenty. If the guy was a small time dealer, he most likely delivered because he constantly had it in the house and wouldn't have wanted to draw attention to it. A guy who's involved in small distribution only might have people call around because he can get rid of his whole supply in one night.

No-one is going to call in out of the blue saying 'got any drugz bud?'. Being a weed smoker is a constant pain in the ass sorting out your supply lines, and they change more often than the seasons - trust me. Someone wanting to look up the former tenant will text, get nothing back, and move on down their phone book.

3. Ventilation. If this was a proper hydro set up, then he'll have been using ventilation of some sort. That means finding a makeshift way to get the the air through a charcoal filter and out of there. There could be a gap in the fascia/soffit (I can't remember which is which). If he didn't, he may well have had damp air in a part of the house you want to keep dry.

But aren't you only thinking of renting? I mean, any long term damage to the timber is the landlord's problem.

Oh_Noes · 28-10-2011 2:18pm

I think you're confusing the idea of a home growing operation with a full-on grow house. The grow houses which are often rented out by Chinese gangs and the like are completely gutted out with a lot of building on/knocking down going on. They generally do this with a view to having an industrial operation for six months or so. They then just pack everything up and disappear, leaving the place with a lot of damage in it.

Sounds like the previous tenant in this place was a guy who was growing plants where he lived. There's no great heat or humidity involved in growing these plants, they're delicate like all plants so need a quiet, gentle environment. If anything the guy probably kept the attic in better condition than the rest of the house. Any ventilation would have been through the kind of pipes that are used for tumble dryers.

As for the idea of the house being "tarnished", that's complete nonsense. You'd be amazed at how common this type of thing is across all socio-economic groups in the community. The majority of people aren't caught and the only way you know about it is by googling the address, which no one else will do.

The landlord won't knock any money off the place because of this and you're probably the only person other than the previous tenant and the gardai who knows anything about it. My advice would be to just forget about it, it's a non-issue.

Zamboni · 28-10-2011 2:58pm

Oh_Noes wrote: »

As for the idea of the house being "tarnished", that's complete nonsense. You'd be amazed at how common this type of thing is across all socio-economic groups in the community. The majority of people aren't caught and the only way you know about it is by googling the address, which no one else will do.

Y'all must have grown up in a different Ireland than me.
If something illegal happened in a house regardless of the level of activity or purpose, neighbours would be twitching curtains and gossiping and a stigma would linger for years.
Don't confuse what you think of cannabis to what an elderly neighbours or the local gossips may think about it.

nxbyveromdwjpg · 29-10-2011 9:18am

Zamboni wrote: »

Y'all must have grown up in a different Ireland than me.
If something illegal happened in a house regardless of the level of activity or purpose, neighbours would be twitching curtains and gossiping and a stigma would linger for years.
Don't confuse what you think of cannabis to what an elderly neighbours or the local gossips may think about it.

Who cares what the elderly neighbours thought about a previous tenant that was moved out some time ago? Are they that elderly that they won't be able to grasp the rental system and new occupants moving into the house?

I agree with the majority of posters, this is most definitely a non-issue.

donna14 · 29-10-2011 9:24am

Thanks for the replies everyone we have arranged a second viewing for next week. The house is the second last house in a very big estate, there's about 250 houses in total. The house is positioned in a corner with a large raised green area in front of it so it's very private which is why we like it, private but still close to town. Its in the back row of houses and I'd say about 3/4 of them (in that row) are empty/unsold, so I don't think any of the neighbours would be a problem..hopefully not.

Weylin · 29-10-2011 9:39am

donna14 wrote: »

Hey everyone. We are looking to rent a house in a particular area and went to view one today. When I got home I googled the address and seen that the previous tenant had been growing cannabis in the attic (about 10k worth when he was caught) so now i'm wondering if that could have caused any kind of damage to the house? Is there anything we should look out for when we go back to view it again?

my concern would be any hash/smell /residue that might get on my clothes .u might have a VERY hard time explaining that to a customs guy at the airport with a sniffer dog.:eek:

Renting a house that was previously used for growing cannabis

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