Legal Question about Rental Houses?

Question

Hi. I am renting a house and my neighbors mentioned there was a lot of illegal activity that went on at this house with the last tenant. One neighbor recalled it being a meth house. Due to the high toxicity of such houses, I would like to review the police history of this house. Are there resources available to look up the address where you live and find out about illegal activity that occured under that address??

Thank you for your help.

Answer 1

It would be better to have the house tested. The drug activity may not show up on the public record because the police don't always know everything.  You should also ask the landlord. They are obligated to tell you if there is a health hazard they know of.

Answer 2

I think you would have to look it up by the name of the person who lived there, you can try it by the address but you'll most likely need their names. Police and court records are available for the public eye, so go down to the station and ask for the records, if they wont give them to you for some reasons go to the court and ask for any files they might have on the person, if they got arrested they would have gone to court, and their files are open for the public. You could ask the poilice about the house and they might tell you. Or if you can get old police reports, if anything happened at the house then you should be able to search it by the address, search online at the newspapers website, since they have an online copy of the daily paper.

There is only going to be high toxicity if it was a meth lab. if they were just addicts there wont be any toxic issues. only if they were cooking it there would be.

Answer 3

Dear Behindthemask,

          This situation presents you the opportunity to meet the police officers who regularly patrol around your home. Call your local police non-emergency and ask the desk Sargent if you can or leave a message to speak with these individuals.    

          Next call the public health office and ask if they can come out to test for contamination. Drug labs produce many potential poisons creating a public and private health hazard. The history of a property means little. The test results are crucial.

          The present owner of contaminated real estate becomes liable for property rehabilitation and cleaning costs even where they had nothing to do with the underlying contamination causing events. As a tenant you would not be liable but the property could be deemed unsuited for human possession and you would need to move.  Are you willing to accept this risk?

Good Luck.

Answer 4

Just drop by the sheriffs office.   Some cities even have community offices, where their entire purpose is to help with things like this.

The arrest records will be public and are searchable by address.

This is done w/o charge.

Answer 5

google your address, I'm sure it would be in the newspaper on line.

This the chemical content in Meth-(2S)-N-methyl-1-phenyl-propan-2-ami... Air out the whole home while you clean, wipe down you walls and steam clean you carpets. I wounldn't be worried about the toxicity in the house, but the colorful characters that it brought to the homestead when it was a meth. home.

Make it really obvious that it's not anymore.

Hint: Maintain your yard/rental

        Have homely things outside in the yard

        A home sweet home or whatever - welcome mat.