Landlords Beware !

[Melboy]

It has been mentioned on this Forum recently about Cannabis Factories and it would appear that my location, Swindon and surrounding area, is the World Centre for houses that have been let out (some through Agencies as well would you believe) and have been turned into a cannabis factory!

The latest incident here was last week when a detached house was completely gutted by fire due to faulty electrics which had been short circuited and meter by-passed by the Tenants! They, of course, were long gone and are according to the Police are virtually untracable.

The Landlord was completely unaware of what was going on ! Will his insurance pay out? There is some doubt over that as well. The resulting bill is estimated at over £80,000.

This is the 6th case that I know of in my area in the past 9 Months where police have raided a house to be confronted with a unholy mess of cannabis plants etc.

Landlord's, in my opinion, need to carry out regular checks to ensure that they are not being set up by Chinese/Vietnamese (mainly) drug gangs to grow these plants.

Do you know what your Tenant is doing? Do you carry out regular internal checks? A quick drive-by check?

Mel.

[Simon Dewsberry]

Hi Guys

Same story in Cardiff - 2 within 100 yds of my office - one gang sentenced couple of weeks ago. around a dozen reported in cardiff area over the last 12 mths or so.

Take care - especially if curtains on house are permanently closed.

If you are suspicious call police immediately - you dont want to be messing with these people. They make around £100k per crop which only takes around 6-8 weeks to cultivate - if someone was about to screw up a 100K deal for me i would probably get quite nasty about it - but not as bad as these guys!

Simon

[Trenners]

I totally agree with Melboy and Simon ...... landlords need to perform regular inspections on their tenants to ensure that their properties are not being used for illegal or immoral purposes.

Too many landlords only focus on getting the monthly rent - which is easy to pay from the cannabis proceeds - and do not realise that buy-to-let is a lot more "hands on" than monitoring the yield !!!!!

If landlords simply want to monitor the yield they would be better off investing in a property based unit trust.

Mark

[GPEL]

This is very worrying. Let me guess, the police and local authorities have issued no guidance whatsoever if you come across this sort of thing in your property. I think that a great deal of caution is necessary if suspected. Those involved in this sort of thing may operate in a gun culture with obvious threat to the landlord.

[plym77]

this thread has worried me a touch... I have decided to visit my home town next week and perform an inspection - i havent seen the property in a year.

better to be safe than sorry!!

[Chris Knight]

We have come across a similar claim for damage to property where it was being used as a cannabis factory.

Whether or not it is covered depends on an insured event occuring - in this case a fire (so far so good) but the issue maybe how the fire was started. If not covered under the standard perils, then if the policy has Malicious Damage & Theft by Tenant cover then the policy should pay out, however this is normally restricted to around £5,000.

Read your policy carefully for any exclusions but definatley worth a claim.

www.leaseguard.co.uk

[Melboy]

I have bumped this topic back up to the top as it has been mentioned again.

Landords (and guests reading this topic) make sure you know what your Tenant(s) is up to.

Mel.