How To Spot Drug Factories In Rented Properties
A new booklet for landlords gives advice on how to spot drug factory in the rented property. The police has found them in London areas that you would never suspect, so this concerns everybody.
In case you are suspicious of your neighbours, here are some signs that the landlords are advised to look for:
How to spot a cannabis factory
- A strong, pungent smell coming from the property
- Electrical wiring that has been tampered with
- Beware of booby traps. Electrical wiring may have been rigged up to door handles etc.
- Powerful lights left on in the house throughout the night
- Windows blacked out
- A sudden jump or increase in the cost of electricity bills
- Scuffed paint or wallpaper
- Large quantities of bin bags, full of vegetable material, thrown away
- Rewiring efforts or bypassed circuitry
In case of other drugs
- Large amounts of chemicals products
- Coffee filters
- Boxes of red matches
- Stripped battery cases
- Ephedrine or pseudoephedrine based medicines (cold or allergy medicines)
- Strong or unpleasant chemical smells such as ammonia
- Chemistry equipment such as glass flasks, chemical reactors etc.
Here is what landlords and letting agents should be aware of when letting out rented premises:
- A prospective tenant’s willingness to pay months of rent in advance, or above the going rate, particularly in cash
- Never accept rent in cash. Ask for bank account details.
- Never accept tenants without checking references and backgrounds first
- Be suspicious if a tenant never allows you access to the property or refuses you entry to certain rooms or areas of the property
- If the tenant asks to meet you away from the property to pay rent, or to discuss anything about the accommodation
- If the tenant puts deadlocks or alarms on internal doors, and has made attempts to install fortifications on the exterior of the property.
Source: Landlord’s Guide To Keeping Illegal Drugs Out Of Rented Properties (*pdf)
Via: ThisIsPlymouth.co.uk
