Meth and investment properties – it’s worse than you think

Date Published: 29 May 2017

If you’re looking in the property market at the moment, you’ve no doubt come across the dire warnings surrounding methamphetamine, meth or “P”. The chemical process for making P is incredibly toxic and effectively soaks into the walls of the house that it is made in. These chemicals can cause significant illnesses for anyone spending time in that house for years to come.  A house that tests positive for P essentially needs the walls and ceiling removed and replaced. There’s no place to hide it and the effects are considerable.

This blog isn’t about that. It’s about the effects you may not have thought about.

Have you bought any secondhand furniture recently? A couch? A bed? Did you get it checked for P? There’s a joke to be made there about “p” and secondhand beds but I’m going to skip over it and get straight back to the meth.

Baches and meth

Baches are a popular meth lab site. You have a house in a remote location, that you can hire cost-effectively for a couple of days, set up a lab and the owners are none the wiser. The toxins don’t have an odour so there is nothing to alert them unless they perform regular tests.

So a bach owner may innocently decide to sell their old furniture and the purchaser would never think to test a couch. They might just notice their asthma is playing up and some skin irritation.

It’s an important consideration as more labs are found throughout the country. If in doubt, you can purchase at-home tests or hire a professional.

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