Home warranties suspended for grow ops
As police counterattacks against grow-ops throughout the Lower Mainland soar, so do the negative impacts of this criminal commerce.
    Recently, National Home Warranty Programs Ltd., which serves one-third of the BC new home warranty program, has sent some homeowners letters notifying them that their home warranty has been suspended because their home had been identified as a former grow-operation.
    Ray Windsor, chief operating officer at New Home Warranty, says it’s impossible to guarantee a home once used for growing marijuana because of damage from moisture and heat which causes mold, as well as other dangerous hazards including bad electrical wiring.
    While the Homeowner Protection Act does not specifically refer to grow-ops or associated defects, homes for uses ‘other than residential’ can have exclusions to their warranty. Grow-ops fall into this category.
    Windsor foresees more home warranty suspensions as non-residential and illicit purposes continue to increase. Cooperation between companies like his, and local police detachments, are now more common.
    Sensitive legal issues regarding privacy must be observed by Windor’s company, as they pertain not only to criminal proceedings, but the protection of homeowners’ privacy.
    “You can’t just say, okay everyone knows that this house on this street is a grow-op and proceed from there,” says Windsor. “What we need is for the police to inform us that a house has been identified as a grow house before we can do anything.”
    From there his company sends a notification letter about a suspension of a home warranty to the Superintendent of Real Estate, the municipality, and the homeowner explaining the reasons.
    Windsor says his company has its own inspectors who thoroughly examine a home to determine if there are problems. If there are and they’ve been caused by grow operations, the warranty could be excluded from coverage, in whole or in part.
    In some cases, a home will retain part of its warranty – for example, the house foundation, if it’s unaffected by grow operations, while excluding wiring and plumbing, which may be directly affected.
    In other cases, the warranty suspension can be reversed pending a review. Some homes may remain in warranty suspension indefinitely and some may undergo remediation and have their warranty reinstated.
    The Homeowner Protection Act and Regulations, in effect as of July 1 1999, require all residential builders to be licensed by the Homeowner Protection office and to have third party warranty insurance to obtain a building permit in BC.
    Legislated home warranty insurance covers two years on labour and materials, five years on the building envelope, and ten years on structure.
    For more information, go online to the home protection program at http://www.hpo.bc.ca/ or contact one of the companies that provide home warranty products.