MEDFORD, Ore. — NBC5 News is continuing to follow the predicament of Lori Biando, a Shady Cove homeowner who’s living a nightmare after discovering meth residue levels in her home that were way above Oregon Health Authority standards.
Thursday, we learned Biando’s situation as shocking as it is… isn’t that uncommon, according to experts.
“We are going on the good faith that the seller’s telling us the truth,” said Broker Dave Culbertson, Coldwell Banker.
If you’re looking to buy your next dream home, you may want to research its history. And that doesn’t mean doing your average home inspection, which doesn’t test for methamphetamine residue.
“We can only know what the seller tells us,” Culbertson said.
Culbertson isn’t involved in Biando’s case, but has been practicing as a broker at Coldwell Bank since 2002.
He says every seller is given a “disclosure statement,” one of the many questions asking if the home has ever been used as an illegal drug manufacturing or distribution site?
“If the seller’s dishonest, there’s no way to know that,” he said. “The realtor’s really have to rely on the buyer’s knowledge and the seller’s knowledge.”
It’s the homeowner’s responsibility to test their dream home for drugs before purchasing it, but it’s costly.
“The initial testing is like 2,500 dollars on a three bedroom house, ball park figure,” said John Neilson, Founder of Neilson Research Corporation.
Neilson says testing a home is not an easy job.
“One sample per bedroom, one sample from the front room, one from the dining room, two from the kitchen, two from the bathroom…,” he said.
And what happens if you’re already living in the home?
According to the Oregon Health Authority, you must pay testing fees, clean-up fees, then get a Certificate of Fitness from the state.
If you can’t afford to do that, you have to disclose the situation to future buyers.
“Cleanups can vary from 5,000 dollars to 20,000,” he said.
But here’s the kicker.
Homeowners only have to disclose whether the home was used as an “illegal drug manufacturing site,” not if the drug was ever used in the home.
Moreover, Neilson says users often leave more methamphetamine residue in a home than a lab.
“Its getting scattered throughout the environment and we have no idea what’s going to happen to our kids and what’s going to happen to their development,” he said. “And that’s really frightening.”
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