Mission couple struggling to sell suspected grow-op house

Lea and his wife Florminawere ecstatic in May, when they received six offers on their Mission, B.C., home in the first 24 hours it was on the market.

They accepted an offer that was $93,000 above their listed price.

But the jubilation quickly turned to devastationwhen they learned that the home was once the site of a suspected marijuana growoperation, or grow-op.

"We couldn't even talk. It was that gut-wrenching," said Lea."The day before you're high-fiving and super happy tears of joy go to tears of sorrow."

"I mean you've gone from everything to nothing and it's almost unbearable."

• Licensed grow-op in Mission, B.C., destroyed in fire
• Underground grow-op found under fake horse paddock
• Medical marijuanagrow-opswill not be busted, say mayors

The prospectivebuyer had done a simple search with the local fire hall to discover that a Public Safety Investigation Team (PSIT) had been to the home on Grebe Crescent in 2010 and found evidence of a possible grow-op. Thatwas enough to sink the deal.

"When [the inspectors]came in there was no plants, no equipment, and there was no criminal charges laid, and yet this PSIT file still remains," said Leawho obtained the 82-page report on his house through a freedom of information request.

The PSIT program was only in effect in Mission from 2008 to 2011, when it became a local controversyand was eventuallyscrapped.

Other nearby municipalitieshad similar programs, whereinspectors, often tipped off by high BC Hydro usage, checked out suspect homes. They generally didn't lead to criminal charges, but instead left the homeowner with a list of defects requiring thorough remediation, as well as a hefty fine. In Mission, the fine was $4,900.

'Health and safety of the future residents'

The inspection programs were promoted by officials in nearby Surrey, whereFire Chief Len Garis takes a particular interest in the issue. He haseven authoredacademic papers about marijuana grow-op safety.

"The concerns in the community, of course, arethat these properties that were once used for a grow op, if they were not remediated can and most do contain residual, latent issues associated with the health and safety of the future residents," he said.

"The worst thing that can happen is you purchase that property and then the next day a neighbour shows up and says, 'By the way did you know your property was used for a grow op?' And then there's some major concerns associated with that."

According to Garis, other cities likeRichmond, Coquitlam, Pitt Meadows, Langley, Abbotsford, and Chilliwack have all tried similar programs. Many of them slowed down around 2011, when new federal regulations came in around medical marijuana.

"What we saw was fewer and fewer homes that were being used for illicit purposes and more and more that were licensed by Health Canada. It seemed like the numbers kind of exchanged places with each other," said Garis of the situation in Surrey.

Despite the changing legal climate, Garis'sprogram in Surrey, called the Electrical Fire Safety Initiative, isstill in force.

Records don't die with the program

But whilePSIT has been dismantled in Mission, the records haven't gone away even if there's nothing at all wrong with the home.

"These records are available and they're available for the public and the Realtors," saidMichael Boronowski, manager ofcivic engagement and corporate initiatives with the District of Mission.

"Certainly in Mission it became a really controversial issue and I don't know that it was handled really well ... but still the records from that program, I don't believe, should be just destroyed," he said.

"It's unfortunate there is a stigma attached to houses that have been fully remediated."

'It has to 100 per cent go away'

For Lea, his current predicament seems anything but fair.

"It has to 100 per cent go away. That whole thing has to go away. You can't discriminate for three years on these homes," he said. "It's not fair to us, it's not fair to the home."

"Something has to be done, there has to be a way of putting these homes on a scale of, 'Yeah this was a minor one, this was a major one.'"

If a prospective buyeror ownermakesa freedom of information request, they can learn some of the specifics of the inspection.But buyers whosee there's a PSITfilecan more easily justscuttle the deal.

"I understand what they're doing. They're trying to keep everybody safe," he said of the inspections.

"My biggest issue with it is, we're stuck in that three-year window. What about all the other ones? What about all the ones that were full-blown grow shows they went and painted the walls, covered the holes, sold the house?"

"Here we are with a home that's absolutely gorgeous and we can't sell it," he said.

"The stress is it's becoming unbearable. I'm probably a little better than my wife. She's taking it a lot worse. It's not fair. It's just not fair."

Follow Rafferty Baker on Twitter: @raffertybaker