Pre-Mitigated Meth House

[Sarah Humbargar]

We are under contract on a tri-plex which the owner claims had meth use but was mitigated to state standards, in Colorado. Two of the three units appear to be fully updated, but the upstairs unit has not been updated in years. None of the units share any air exchange or utilities, and the unit that is recorded to have had meth use has a completely separate entrance as well . What should we be looking for? I have yet to receive or find any documentation that full mitigation has occurred, what is typically issued when a meth lab has been mitigated? What kind of testing should we be doing during our inspection period and does anyone have recommendations in Colorado Springs? This is our first property we've tried to buy or lease with any evidence of meth. 

[Bill S.]

@Sarah Humbargar so what you have stated regarding the separation of the units means it's not likely that the contamination from one unit would have gotten into that unit. You can hire a company to do a "real estate" test which costs about $400 up here. That test shows the presence of meth but doesn't trigger notification to the state. A full meth test costs about $800 and if it comes back positive then it goes on the state list until mitigated. You shouldn't find a public record that a property that has been legally mitigated was contaminated. That is why Colorado passed the law. If you mitigate according to the law then there is no legal stigma of the property related to meth.

You can ask the owner for proof that the other unit was not contaminated. The owner should have tested that unit when the others were tested and found to be contaminated. If it has not been tested, my suspicion is that the unit is contaminated. Think of it this way, the other two units had users in them at some one and it was found out. It seem very likely that the other unit was at some point occupied by users as well. Most meth contamination these days comes from using not from manufacturing. 

If you have time, you can do your own testing. Find a lab that tests for meth and send them a couple wipe samples from the unit. I was told the return air duct is a must sample area but you can create a couple composite samples by wiping various place like the walls in all the rooms. Bathroom exhaust fans are also a prime location to sample. You can send the samples and in a few days they can tell you if meth was detected on your sample. If it was then you can go for the full blown test. A few years ago it was about $40 per sample to have them tested. 

I was told by a public health official that probably 50% of the lower income units along the front range would test positive for meth. I've not run into any real data to support that theory. At the same time I've only know of two properties that were tested and both tested positive.