On May 17 the Board announced the launch of Safe Grow Homes – an awareness campaign aimed at helping members, clients, the public, and elected officials to better understand the potential impacts of cannabis cultivation on home ownership.
With the historic legalization of recreational cannabis in Canada on October 17, many anticipate a sharp increase in the number of citizens growing cannabis at home.
SafeGrowHomes.ca provides information and resources about cannabis and the risks of home cultivation, directly to the public. We also published articles for members in NewsReal that explored how legalization could affect you, your clients, and your business.
If you have missed the articles we have posted or not yet visited the Safe Grow Homes web pages, we encourage you to take a few minutes this week to check them out. The more you know the better you’ll be prepared for what’s around the corner. With cannabis politics, you just never know!
- Will Bill C-45 mean pot houses on every block? Updated from December 2017:
- Introducing Safe Grow Homes Campaign May 16, 2018
- Property disclosures: Will legalization of cannabis make a difference? May 23, 2018
- FYI or FOI? Probing a property’s past at the local city hall May 31, 2018
- Growing pains: cannabis cultivation risks June 6, 2018
- New BCREA report examines ways to remediate drug homes July 19, 2018
- Board volunteers meet with government over cannabis issue August 22, 2018
- Will new cannabis laws change your practice? October 11, 2018
More help on the way from BCREA:
BCREA’s Standard Forms committee and legal counsel have approved changes to the grow-op question (Clause 4a) on the Property Disclosure Statement (PDS). Once approved by the BC Boards and loaded into WEBForms®, the updated question will read as follows:
- Are you aware if the [Premises/Building/Land/Unit] [NTD: based on particular PDS] has been used to grow marijuana (other than as permitted by law) or to manufacture illegal substances?
An additional question will be added to the PDS when it’s been approved, to address the damage that may be caused by legal growth of vegetation.
As well, BCREA is working on a new webinar series to be launched this fall to help educate Realtors on what they need to know about the legalization of cannabis. Experts on issues related to remediation and cannabis cultivation will touch on everything from insurance and mortgage risks to market stigma.
In the meantime, BCREA is continuing to lobby for a province-wide remediation process, including the implementation of a five-step remediation process in which a home used for cannabis cultivation is discovered, inspected, remediated, inspected again and finally designated a healthy home.