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Original poster

Buying a house that has been used for (illegal) drugs manufacturing

22 replies

ISeeTheLight · 31/01/2022 17:50

Short story - would you buy a house that's been used for drugs manufacturing?

Long story -

We've been negotiating with an estate agent & vendor about a property we're interested in. Long story - it's been up for sale for over 10 years (on and off); they were asking too much and the photos were terrible. Rented out in between (vendors own number of properties).

Huge 1970s house; large 5 bedrooms + annexe, big plot in a lovely and secluded location between two listed buildings. Very upmarket street. Conservation area, lots of trees, listed wall at the back of the garden, near a park. Lots and lots of potential. Expensive house for the (fairly deprived) city; at original asking price it would have appeared in one of those "10 most expensive properties sold this year in x city" articles.

The house has been gutted internally and needs complete refurbish; structurally it's fine though incl. roof. We were told by the agent before that the vendors had had "some issues with the tenants that were renting it" and we deduced they had been evicted. Floors ripped out, fireplaces smashed, bathroom sinks smashed etc. You get the picture. We have budgeted for this (and have recent quotes so know what we're looking at).

Our first bid of just under 74% of asking price - which they had told us was based on condition prior to previous tenants moving in so when it was still in decent condition - was rejected; vender counter offered at 85% of original asking price. We went to look at the garden today as it has a lot of trees and we had 2 storms over the weekend, to check if anything was damaged. No storm damage.

Got speaking to the neighbours 2 doors down. Turns out the previous tenants were using the property to run an illegal drug factory and the property was raided by police just over a year ago. They were making pills (fake diazepam) in the kitchen. No cannabis or meth etc as far as we know. No needles (as I was concerned about some lying around in the garden). Apparently forensics were in it for a while investigating - which would explain why the floorboards upstairs have been cut up and all flooring removed.

We have found news articles but they do not mention the street or house name; so you don't find it by searching the address. Articles back up neighbours' story - they're elderly and gave us LOTS of details.

Would you buy a property that has this kind of history? Would it put you off? Would you reduce the value and if so by how much (%)?

Would you have expected the agent to tell you about this?

Does anyone know if we could get any details out of the police by doing a freedom of information request? (basically what are we risking here; and is there anything we should look for eg have electrics been tampered with etc).

We are still interested in the house as very few houses of that size, setting and plot exist in the area we need. But we are now thinking of not increasing our offer by as much as we were planning to yesterday. It would be great to know if it would put other people off as this impacts the value.

OP posts:
PostThenGhost · 31/01/2022 18:12

Would you buy a property that has this kind of history? Would it put you off? Would you reduce the value and if so by how much (%)?

It wouldn’t put me off at all. What is it that concerns you? Anyone who bought stuff from there will, I imagine, be in the know that the manufacturers have moved on. I doubt you will be getting people knocking on your door asking for drugs, it’s all pre arranged by phone these days.

passionfruitpizza · 31/01/2022 18:14

I wouldn't increase offer. I'd make a point to estate agent about not increasing offer because of what I'd found out. I don't think it would put me off if I really wanted the house. I suppose maybe I'd be worried people would visit looking for previous occupants.

AskingforaBaskin · 31/01/2022 18:24

Someone I know bought something similar and had a few people knocking the doors looking to make their regular purchases.

They hadn't considered that prior to the purchase and the police were zero help.

Original poster
ISeeTheLight · 31/01/2022 18:56

Thanks all. It hasn't been used for dealing, just manufacturing, so random people turning up to buy wouldn't be an issue. They arrested one person who was a teen they'd paid to keep an eye on things. No other arrests as far as we know but of course there would have been people higher up the chain.

Our MP is holding a session with the police this weekend nearby so we may attend just to find out if they're able to give us any more information.

We've discussed and we won't be upping our offer for now. Annoyed with the estate agents they haven't been honest about it too.

OP posts:
Pyriah · 31/01/2022 19:00

No I wouldn’t buy it. What if the previous owners come back and are annoyed that their house has been sold, and attack you? Or someone comes looking for the manufacturers and wants to hurt them but finds you in the house. God knows who could knock on the door, I wouldn’t risk it.

CuteOrangeElephant · 31/01/2022 19:05

I would buy it but would put significant time and energy towards the front of the house. So nice garden, fresh paint, Ring doorbell for security. Make it look the opposite of a drug house.

Sprig1 · 31/01/2022 19:08

It wouldn't put me off in itself but it tells you a lot about the area. I think your biggest problem is going to be buying one of the 'best ' houses in a not great area. It will always have a relatively low ceiling price. Whilst you may be happy to live there you may struggle to sell it on for what it ends up costing you, including renovation. The fact that it has been on the market for such a long time tells you that the price the owners will be willing to accept for it is more than the market thinks it is worth.

Original poster
ISeeTheLight · 31/01/2022 19:31

Thansk again. A couple of things:
The manufacturers didn't own the house, they rented it. The current owner has owned it since 2005; the drug thing was going on about 1.5yrs or so; the place was raided just over a year ago and has been empty since.

Re curb appeal / making it look like "not a drugs house" - you can't actually see the house from the road (probably one of the reasons they were attracted to it). It has a big gate (which we'll replace as it was kicked in by the police...) and a long driveway.

OP posts:
user1471443411 · 31/01/2022 19:33

We had this too but didn't find out until after we'd bought the house - in our case, although it was quite a shock to find out from the neighbours, it was reassuring in many ways as it answered some questions we had. In our case, they were growing cannabis and there was a specific smell (not the usual cannabis smell) that we were worried about before we moved in - my partner thought it might be rats urine! Which we mentioned to the estate agent but he looked puzzled and said it was the vinyl flooring. There had been a police raid and the back door was broken so we had to replace this when we found out (it wasn't obvious at first).
If we'd known before I don't think it would have put us off. The only potential problem that cropped up is to do with the electric supply and getting the energy company to actually bill us - I think the previous owners might have bypassed the supply or something as there are two separate accounts linked to our address. Also we've just had a bill (after living here about five years) for a previous tenant's electric bill - about £15,000 for a year's worth of electricity.

whyohwhyohwhyohwhywhy · 31/01/2022 19:33

I would buy it.

You won't get anything from an Foi, specific crime information is exempt. I would just do your own due diligence, or see if you can find something out via the MP or a loose lipped local neighborhood officer.

Original poster
ISeeTheLight · 31/01/2022 19:41

Also the house is definitely not the most expensive on the street. Houses just don't come up for sale very often - large family properties and people live in them for 20-30+ years.

OP posts:
Lonelycrab · 31/01/2022 19:48

Agree that it wouldn’t put me off.

FWIW my DM has a house she rents out and that was converted into a cannabis farm a while back. Was a mess and needed scrubbing but it didn’t effect the house in any real way. The cleaning up and making good is the hard bit.

NotanotherboxofFrogs · 31/01/2022 21:54

I've lived in a house that the previous tenant dealt drugs from. The only problem I had was on a few occasions when I needed ambulances unknown to me that the house was blacklisted by the ambulance service. They would turn up with a police escort. I was asked from outside the door if anybody else was in the house and police stayed with the paramedics. I queried several times and finally got the answer, previous tenant had a liking for calling ambulances out and on two separate occasions threatened and once held a knife to a paramedic to get drugs. Previous tenant was on bail and skipped the country. I moved in over a year later.

I also lived above a man who had the spare bedroom as a grow farm, thankfully the flats were all metered separately within the kitchen so it didn't effect my electric. I put the smells down to him always cooking weird stuff, it wasn't until he burgled me that the police sniffed it when taking fingerprints. He also did a runner and skipped the country.

It can bring troubles with the house "reputation" so something to be aware of

The ambulance one was a problem as I was severely ill and needed regular ambulances but after a few times when it was explained and that the crews were under no threat that the blacklist was lifted.

Wetblanket78 · 21/09/2023 13:56

I watched a video of an American couple. When the wife was pregnant her blood showed she had meth in her system. But she wasn't a drug user on further investigation they found the house had been used as a meth lab and trace's had been left in the house. If your completely refurbishing it though it's highly unlikely you will be affected.

Clymene · 21/09/2023 14:09

ZOMBIE THREAD

ladycardamom · 21/09/2023 14:13

Where I live, you can get meth testing done as part of property checks, because the chemicals used are dangerous. Maybe look into that? If it's all OK I wouldn't let it worry me

NewFriendlyLadybird · 21/09/2023 14:31

The house a couple of doors down from my mother’s, in the most staid area imaginable, was used both as a weed factory and a set for a porn film! The neighbours were, and remain, agog.

It’s on the market now but isn’t selling … I think that’s got more to do with the hideous photos and relatively high price though.

Original poster
ISeeTheLight · 21/09/2023 20:46

Wow I started this thread ages ago.
In case anyone's interested - we didn't end up buying the house as the seller was unrealistic about the the value. Given the max ceiling price and the amount of money it needed spending on it (eg full rewire as the electrics had been tampered with and it wasn't safe), it didn't make financial sense.

We've since bought a gorgeous victorian property with no drug history.

OP posts:
AnSolas · 21/09/2023 21:44

Thanks for the update

poorlyarm · 21/09/2023 23:01

We had a similar situation, it was a rural property and they were growing cannabis in a barn on quite a large scale and the barn subsequently burned down!

It just freaked me out a bit I'm not sure why. Just felt a bit spooky and unsettling, we didn't end up buying it.

housethatbuiltme · 22/09/2023 10:57

My house although rented is an ex drug house... been here 12 years without issues (except damp but thats from the lazy cheapskate landlord not the history).

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