Pubdate: Sun, 27 Apr 2003
Source: Edmonton Sun (CN AB)
Copyright: 2003, Canoe Limited Partnership.
Contact:  http://www.fyiedmonton.com/htdocs/edmsun.shtml
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/135
Author: Jonathan Jenkins, Sun Media

GROW-HOME NIGHTMARE

TORONTO -- It had been a lovely suburban home Lina and her sister inherited 
from their parents and rented to a nice, polite family with two children.

It was only when police called her last July that Lina, who didn't want her 
last name used, learned the truth.

"Downstairs in one room where I guess they fiddled around with the power, 
we're getting water in there, so I guess they wrecked the foundation," she 
said.

"There's lots of mould through the whole house. Our roof was all black, we 
had to remove it all."

Lina's home was hosting a hydroponic marijuana grow, one of an estimated 
15,000 in southern Ontario.

Unsuspecting Landlords

Cops say the dope growers prefer to rent expansive homes in spacious 
subdivisions, which offer anonymity and unquestioning neighbours. Renting 
also provides protection from seizure under proceeds of crime legislation.

Rent and the growing equipment are the only overhead. Power is stolen by 
drilling through the foundation and bypassing the hydroelectric box.

Walls are knocked down or pulled out so every spare inch can be devoted to 
the crop.

The acrid smell of the growing plants is vented upward, along with 
excessive heat and humidity, by punching holes through the floors up to the 
roof.

The result is warped plywood and waterlogged insulation, but with grow 
houses turning a million dollars profit or more a year, damage to homes the 
cultivators don't own is no disincentive.

For unsuspecting landlords such as Lina, though, the aftermath is a ruined 
home, a police probe and a fight with insurers.

"I didn't do anything wrong. I'm an innocent victim."

The police investigated her, repair bills have hit nearly $100,000 and her 
insurance company cancelled her policy.

"The insurance didn't even want to come to look at it," she said. "We were 
23 years with this insurance company and this was the first claim we'd ever 
made."

Insurers are only just now waking up to the grow-house problem that 
hydroelectric companies have been suffering with for the past few years.

Claims like Lina's are being refused and new policies specifically state 
damage from marijuana plantations won't be covered.

"Every time we take down a lab someone has to come in and do a whole lot of 
work before anyone can live in them again," Peel Region police Insp. Dave 
Van Loosen said.

"Theoretically, these houses should be condemned. A lot of insurance 
companies are now writing it into policies that they won't cover this kind 
of damage."

Police in Ontario's Peel, York, Durham and Halton regions are scrambling 
from house to house, kicking in as many grow-house doors as they have 
officers to handle.

But once the cops are gone, the wrecked house is left behind, often with an 
outstanding power bill of $10,000 or more.

Peel Region drug Det. Ian Calder said he wouldn't buy a former grow house 
unless it had been thoroughly inspected but even that presents a problem - 
home inspectors may not know what to look for.

"If we suspect it was a former grow home then we tell them it was a former 
grow home," Rebecca Zammit, who works for HouseMaster home inspections, said.

Dominique O'Rourke, spokesman for the Co-operators, said the firm has been 
writing in a clause to their policies excluding pot grow damage since 
November "It's just bringing more clarity that intentional or illegal 
damage is not covered," she said. "We were seeing this incredible trend in 
B.C. and it was just growing and growing in Ontario, pardon the pun.

"It causes extensive structural damage to the home."

Hydroelectric companies are now painfully aware of the cost to their 
operations in stolen electricity from the grows - now estimated to average 
$2,000 per home a month.

Painful Lesson

If the police estimate of 15,000 grow homes is correct, that means up to 
$360 million worth of power is stolen a year, a cost that must be covered 
by consumers.

But the power firms are also learning they're running up additional costs 
in damaged and compromised equipment. Sometimes the cable running into 
homes can be damaged by the amateur grower while bypassing the box.

Markham Hydro spokesman Ed Benvenuto said repairing or replacing the cable 
can cost about $2,000.

Oshawa Power and Utilities Corporation metering supervisor Ron Little said 
the huge draw of a marijuana grow can also tax the transformer, serving 
about 10 homes.

"We've had some transformers in new subdivisions blow for no reason," 
Little said, estimating replacement can run about $5,000, not counting the 
cost of the crew.

For Lina, it's been a painful lesson since she'd been told her parents' 
home had been turned into a drug lab.

The repairs are almost done now and she hopes to rent it again, but she has 
a warning for others.

"I'd tell them to check out (your tenants), make sure that you tell them 
you're going to do the monthly inspections," she said.

"It's a nightmare. And trying to get insurance again is another nightmare." 
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MAP posted-by: Beth