buying a building that were potentially a former meth lab

[Doanh Mai]

Hi all,

Thank you ahead for your time and help!  I would like to seek your opinion on whether or not I should move forward with this deal.

My wife and I have found this way under market value building in the city of Manchester NH. 

Upon entering the property, there is no electricity. All the drop down ceiling tile have been removed. All the heat duct covers have been removed. Plumbing have been winterized. 

The rest of the work are mostly cosmetic. 

We immediately saw the value of this building and made an offer right away. We are still waiting to hear from the seller.

I did a little work in looking up the name the seller and found that he was a drug dealer (meth) and the building had a lot of foot traffic.

He was arrested and lost possession of the building, now belong to the city marshal. 

I dug a little deeper and this arrest was on the FB page of the city of Manchester. Many mentioned about him being a drug dealer (meth). No mentioned of this building being a meth lab. 

But this place was raided several time between 2018 and 2021. 

My deep concern is that this apartment or building was a former meth lab. But there is no sign of it being one. There was no odor of ammonia  or cat pee or chemistry equipment. However this was probably left empty since 2021 or 2022, at least half a year with one of the window cracked open. 

Is it worth the risk to go through? If it was indeed a former meth lab. What does it takes to decontaminate it. 

WOULD YOU BACK AWAY FROM THE DEAL?

Best regards

Doanh

[Greg Powers]

The standard NH Property Disclosure has the following question: "Do you have knowledge of methamphetamine production ever occurring on the property (Per RSA 477:4-g)?"  You get to answer Yes or No.  There are ways you can parse that question, but you have to ask yourself, would a judge consider that you knew about it or not?  

I listed a property a while ago that was busted as a meth lab and sat vacant for several years thereafter, but the owner said he never had any proof that they actually found meth there, just that it was busted.  I checked with the city Environmental Protection Division, Planning Department, and Fire Department, and they all disclaimed any jurisdiction over the matter and none of them had any idea what department in the city government would track it.

If there was in fact a meth lab, I think the only entity that would have a record would be the state Department of Environmental Services, but they don't track whether it was cleaned up.  If you DM me I can give you a contact person there you might check with, as well as two companies who can test for it (a few thousand dollars just to test) since most local environmental companies (Peniel, Envirovantage, etc.) won't.  

In my case, the building was infamous in the neighborhood and everyone referred to it as "the meth lab," so even though the owner would not answer "Yes" to that Disclosure question, I told everyone who looked at the building that there was a stong likelihood that there had been a meth lab there.  Surprisingly, not a single person who looked at the building cared.  Sold it with no problem.