Was your rental a meth house? Do you know what steps to take to make it livable again?
If your rental was a meth house, you know there is plenty of work ahead. First off, you can assume the area around your meth house rental is now contaminated and toxic.
Second, the property that is presumably contaminated and toxic is also a full-fledged danger zone that is not available to rent, technically. And so the short-term issue for the property owner doesn’t even begin to describe the amount of cleanup ahead. Here are five steps to getting your property back in tip top shape.
Air it out
This is more or less a no-brainer and probably the easiest step of the five listed here. If you entered a house that had telltale signs of being a “meth house,” such as noxious odors, eye irritants and a mountain of garbage inside, you too would open every window in the house, and fast.
Remove items
This is the most disheartening subhead for property owners–especially for those hoping to save money on repairs. Unfortunately, there is little salvageable surface-wise once a property becomes a meth house. The chemicals and fumes that permeate the walls, carpets, plaster and wood in meth labs, as well as the surrounding soil, are known to cause cancer, short-term and permanent brain damage and immune and respiratory system problems.
In other words, it’s time to bring over a dumpster and haul away furniture and curtains and tear away the old carpet and wallpaper. It may even be time to remove anything considered contaminated, including but not limited to sinks, cabinets and even pipes, but before you take that route, do something else first.
Call a decontamination expert
It sure would be nice to just go in and clean up the place, but you will need to call on an OSHA-certified cleanup crew specializing in “clandestine drug lab decontamination” in order to have your old meth house approved for future rental. Again, this is no laughing matter; the manner through which any landlord must go in order to meet the steps required to make his or her rental “decontaminated” and available is complex and includes a thorough series of steps.
According to a local bio-hazard cleaning service, “Meth lab decontamination is an intricate process involving many steps including, site assessment, sampling / meth testing, comprehensive work plan, removal of contents, decontamination of structure, post-sampling, documentation, final reporting and more.” Furthermore, “if a property owner doesn’t take the proper steps to ensure the apartment is cleaned and decontaminated correctly, and a child gets sick, the parents could sue–potentially creating a different set of problems provided the landlord doesn’t act appropriately and in a timely manner.”
Conduct final tests
After the cleanup and more is complete then an expert will conduct the necessary tests to make a former “meth house” is suitable again for future tenants. Home kits are available to property owners and to the general public, however, it’s best to consult the experts first before taking matters into your own hands.
In all cases though, do the right thing as a professional and hire the right experts in order to clean up the meth mess and make your former “meth house” one for which you and your future tenants can be proud and safe and stay healthy. Real Property Management New York Gold prides itself on fully qualifying new tenants by running credit, background, and criminal checks to avoid such problems.
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