Things to Ask Before You Rent, Part II: The Meth Edition

This is a continuation in a series of posts devoted to questions that I had never thought to ask, but have learned my (costly) lesson so you don’t have to experience the same issues that I have over the years.

This is the second part of a multi-part series, so stay tuned!

Poison Leaching? Sweet!

            One of our most recent lessons was learned when we moved from New Mexico to Colorado. As some may know, the housing market in several areas of the country are astronomical, with Southwestern Colorado not immune to this phenomenon. We are paying nearly DOUBLE, yes, DOUBLE what we were paying in Southern New Mexico for a two-bedroom, two-bathroom, decent sized yard, with a garage. Here, we have a three-bedroom, two bathrooms, no garage, and a yard that is not suitable for much. Our pay hasn’t increased much, and we are bleeding money. But, we are not alone in this struggle, as there are countless other families that are in the same situation. However, there is one thing that may make our experience stand apart…

            See, we learned after moving in (and, of course, signing a 12-month lease) that our home used to be a meth lab. Yes, that’s right ladies and gentlemen, a meth lab. It is estimated that out of the 84,000 meth labs that have been discovered since 2004, only about 5% have been discovered by the authorities (Christie,2013). With people looking to make a quick buck, these labs are being set up in just about any type of neighborhood. Yes, even those in gated communities are not immune. We live in a semi-rural area, which may have been one of the lucrative aspects of this house.

            For the home to be adequately abated against meth residue, it can range between $5,000 and $10,000, but that is for a straightforward decontamination. When there are additional materials required, it can easily exceed the cost of a new car. With the costs associated with decontamination, it is unlikely that the property management company that we are renting through had this step completed. According to Christie (2013), meth can seep into many household furnishings, such as the walls and floors, carpeting, sub-flooring, drywall, kitchen cabinets, and even the ground. Once the initial decontamination is completed, the job is not done, as the chemicals can leach for several years after the cleaning has taken place, putting people at risk for several years to come.

            Even if the home was not converted over to a meth lab, if meth has been smoked in a home, there is still a high risk of symptoms due to exposure. Some chemicals that are released when meth is smoked include red phosphorus, ephedrine, hydrochloric or muriatic acid, and sodium hydroxide (Dudley, 2014). Some states have implemented stiff fines and processes to reduce such instances, but the film and residue from meth smoked in a home can stick around longer than the term of one’s lease. When smoked, the fumes can also leak into the cooling fins of a refrigerator, within heating and cooling ducts, and within appliances.

 

Effects of Meth Contamination

            I was diagnosed with a chronic pain condition known as fibromyalgia a few years ago, but I have been experiencing the symptoms for much longer. Some of the effects that have been noted to occur due to living in a previous meth lab include headaches, nausea, dizziness, and fatigue, with long-term complications, such as damage to the kidneys and liver, an increased risk of cancers, and neurological symptoms have been noted (Christie, 2013). Symptoms such as memory loss, respiratory issues, and headaches have also been noted to occur even after a short exposure to a home that was once a meth lab. With a body that is already busy fighting itself and having a malfunctioning nervous system, I guess we’ll wait it out until the end of our lease, sadly.

TLDR: Take home message? Ask if the rental you are considering was once a meth lab.

Things to Ask Before You Rent, Part I

            Prior to moving into our current house, it had not dawned on me to ask certain questions aside from the regular ones that people routinely ask. Knowing if the utilities are included, what the policy is for having dogs at the property, and the length of the rental term all seem like common questions to ask when doing a walk-through of a prospective property. However, over the course of our rental history, we have encountered incidents that would have benefited from additional inquiry prior to signing a lease. So, I guess, our experience can help you to prevent similar situations from happening to you! This is the first part of a multi-part series, so stay tuned!

Do Bugs Bug You?

            One of our rental experiences still haunt me to this day. A few years ago, we decided to move to a bigger place and one that hopefully didn’t wake me up with water dripping on my face from a leaking roof. While we did get a larger place and the roof didn’t leak, we only stayed there for about a month. Fortunately, we were transferring from one property to another within the same property management company, so we didn’t have to complete an additional background check or pay an additional deposit, as it was just transferred from one account to the other.

            The yard was large, but it was not without fault. There were numerous stickers and other non-dog friendly aspects to the yard that made it less than enjoyable for both man and beast. Not only were there stickers and thorns in the sandy yard, but there were scores of bugs. We noticed some bugs walking through our kitchen and up on the walls while we were eating our first meal in the new place. There were SCORES of them, all marching in a line as if they were lining up to induce nightmares if or when I fell asleep. That night we tried to put it out of our heads, as we were exhausted from moving that day. However, sleep was not possible, at least not for me, as the bugs were also IN OUR BED! The would crawl on the walls, on us, on the dogs, on basically any surface. I couldn’t stay in the house due to the bugs. I ended up driving to our old place in the middle of the night, where I proceeded to make a bed of sorts on the floor. However, there were bugs on the blanket I brought over there, but fortunately, not as many. I sent the landlord an email in the middle of the night to share my experience. She sent out an exterminator the following day.

             According to recent research, ticks that carry Lyme disease have been found to be present in over half of all U.S. counties (Asher, 2016). Lyme disease can lead to serious health complications, with the population of this type of pest experiencing an astounding 320% increase over past two decades (Asher, 2016). However, much of the increase in tick population has been found to occur along the West Coast, as well as the East Coast and much of the right half of the country, which is nowhere near where we lived in New Mexico...

            The exterminator told us that it was the worst TICK infestation he had ever seen. Yes, we had ticks. Not just a few, but thousands. The handyman had noticed some of the bugs when he replaced the sliding glass door that was in the kitchen, but didn’t do anything about it. We were pulling ticks off of the dogs and ourselves. The exterminator had to come out once a week and it didn’t put a dent in the infestation. I spoke to my neighbor, as it was part of a duplex, and he said they have the bugs too. How did they not affect him or his family? Was he just used to living in filth? I suppose so. He was a strange cat.

Stay tuned, as Part II of What to Ask Before You Rent will be uploaded tomorrow.

Asher, C. (2016). Lyme-disease carrying ticks are now in half of all U.S. counties. Science Magazine.

            

Awoken by the 5-0

As some of you may know, we recently moved to Durango, Colorado and have lived here for about a month. The moving process was a bit stressful, as we had not even a month to find a place and move. We were able to find a place that fits most of our needs, but soon after we moved in, weird things started happening.

Although moving in general can be stressful, this time, it was different. We have moved a few times together, so we knew that the short timeline would pose a risk of increasing our stress. We knew that going into it. However, like I said, this time it was different. Our moods shifted to a darker tone, but we chalked that up to stress too. When we took a look at the place, we were desperate. The property management company showed us the place and told us a few rules: don’t flush anything down the toilet that shouldn’t be put down there, and no drugs. The definition of drugs, as well as what one shouldn’t flush, can be open to interpretation, I suppose. Anything I flush though states on the packaging that it can be flushed, being both sewer and septic safe. Fast forward a week after we moved in, and the property owner, not the management team, stopped by a few times, mainly to water, repeating this behavior for the next few weeks.

Well, it wasn’t watering that served his purpose, but rather he was checking up on us. See, a few tenants ago, apparently the renters tried to set up a meth lab on the property. There were also dog breeding (possibly fighting too), and, based on what we found out from the warehouse gym that shares our property, there used to be strung out tweakers hanging out in the yard, where high school athletes sometimes train. I think I’d check up on the new residents too!

The presence of a drug space wasn’t the only weird thing going on, but we have also experienced auditory hallucinations, which also apparently share with our dogs. A week or two after we moved in, I heard my boyfriend’s voice outside, but, see, this is the weird part, he was at work. The dogs also looked out the window and acted as if they heard his voice too. I told my boyfriend about the incident, he disclosed that he too had heard his own voice while in the house.

Going back to the no flushing non-flushable things down the toilet. After taking a bath one night, the space between the floor and the toilet started to gurgle as I started to drain the tub. The gurgle turned into a gush, which flooded the bathroom. Keep in mind, we had only lived in the house for a week or two at this point. We dried it up and did a load of towels without a problem. A week or so passes, then it does it again, but after flushing the toilet (and flushing a normal amount of toilet paper). It had been used several times in between the flooding without an issue. Then a week later, it did it again, this time after no toilet paper was flushed (boyfriend pee). Each time it starts to gurgle at the base of the toilet, never in the bowl or from the tank.

Cue the title for this post. Tuesday morning we awoke to the sound of voices and then discovered that there were police officers on our property. One officer was at the front of the house, speaking with my boyfriend, while another was at the bedroom door that leads to our side yard. Both entrances/exits were covered. Fortunately, it was around 8am, so we were already awake. Turns out, they were looking for someone who used to live here. This was no welfare check. These guys meant business. The cops spoke to the guys at the gym before they came to our house, where they were informed that we had just moved into the house less than a month ago.

In addition to these things that have happened within the first month we have lived here, my health has taken a decline (both mentally and physically), as has my boyfriend’s. I’ve also spotted what could be referred to as shadow people and movement just off the center of my vision and the dogs have had some weird episodes too. I am not sure if the stress is what has caused the change in our health, which could be combined with the presence of a residue from the drug manufacturing process, or if there is just some evil, evil juju going on here.

Regardless of the cause, don’t you think that some of these things should have been disclosed prior to our signing the lease? This has only been the first month. What will the next eleven months on our lease include? We have saged and worked on leaving negative vibes outside the home, cleansing, wind chimes, crystals, but I am not sure we are prepared for what the future may bring. Input, suggestions, etc. is appreciated!