Meth contamination. Do you need to disclose when you’re selling your house?

The idea of a home being contaminated by a substance that could make you sick, that could damage your health, is a very scary thing. Very big problem. And when this was new, when certain individuals were creating the drug and manufacturing it in their home, and it contaminated the walls and the carpet and the floor and everything, and just by entering the home you could absorb this and get sick, really big deal.

I’m really glad that we have really good meth testing now and drug testing for things that are in the home. And if you are looking to buy a home, if there’s any suspicion that that might have happened, I definitely recommend that you get a meth test. You know, a chemical test to see if those particulates are still there.

But if you’re the seller and you know that the home was contaminated by meth before, what should you do?

When is it Considered Clean?

Well, I mean, first step is to get it cleaned. They have contamination specialists who can come into the home, clear it out, remove traces of the chemical and clean it up so that there is not the chemical there anymore.

Now, you can’t clean up the entire total possibility of the chemical. Our homes are just built of too many materials. Porous wood, drywall, stuff can get in them, and you can’t really get it out without replacing it. Right? So, you can replace drywall way easier than you can replace the frame of the home, for example.

But the Utah Health standard has set a limit that says if you’ve cleaned it below this many particulates in the air, then it’s considered clean by the state health department. And state law says that if it’s been cleaned to that level where the state department gives it the okay, that you do not need to disclose that it was ever contaminated.

They say once it’s been cleaned, it is no longer a material fact that must be disclosed. They actually call that the stigma law, there’s a legal definition of what a stigma is. And this is part of that definition. If it’s cleaned from a meth contamination to a certain level, then it’s considered a stigma. And the law says you do not need to disclose that.

Now, you certainly can’t be dishonest. Those are two sort of conflicting things where they say you don’t have to disclose, but then what if someone asks you about it directly? And if someone asks you about it directly, you cannot be dishonest.

Even though the law says you don’t have to disclose, you can’t lie and say no, there is no contamination or zero contamination, right? But you still don’t have to answer the question directly and reveal that information based on the law. But of course, it’s sometimes hard to hide information once asked directly, so you’ll have to. Your major negotiation skills will have to be used for that.

Should We Need to Disclose Past Contamination?

But I had I was in a class for brokers, just this week, and one of the brokers was making a case that you should always disclose that because everybody cares. People have a real concern about that. And it should be disclosed even if it has been cleaned.

And as I was listening to them, I realized that it might be that this isn’t a fact based position. The scary part of meth, the factually scary part of meth, is the damage it can cause to your body. That it can make you sick. It can cause health problems.

And so that’s a real concern if there’s a true meth contamination. But the Utah Health Department has determined that if it’s cleaned down to a small number of particulates per thousand or a million or whatever it is, that if it’s been cleaned to that level, they’ve declared that it no longer poses a health hazard. And so, the legal standard is that it is not a health hazard if it has been cleaned to that degree.

So why would a broker insist that you should disclose this? Even though in the state of Utah, the law has declared that this is no longer a health hazard? And I realized that this was because this is an emotional feeling that people have about the danger of meth. Meth can be dangerous if you encounter it for real. Absolutely. But when it’s been cleaned to the health standards, that danger is gone.

The Emotional Aspect

Why does that fear still remain? Why are we still afraid of the potential damage, even when it’s been declared safe by science, essentially? And so, I realize that a lot of the decisions that we make when we’re buying a home from the client side, from the buyer side, seller side, so many things that we do when we’re shopping for a home and a place we want to live, these are emotional decisions.

And these are definitely important. I’m not saying that these decisions aren’t important. But I wonder as a real estate agent, how do you know if your client cares strongly about this if you haven’t asked them about it directly? Is it our responsibility to ask them about each one of these things?

That might be an emotional trigger for them. And even if it is like in the case of meth, if I have a client who’s afraid of meth, and even if it’s been cleaned, they just want a house that’s never had it in it at all, that’s fair. They can choose if that’s the way they want to purchase their house. It’s okay for them to make that decision.

What is our Responsibility in this Situation?

Is there any responsibility on me to educate them on the health standard and the risk and danger of an actually contaminated home versus a clean home that still has traces, but they’re not, according to science, going to create a health hazard? Do I need to educate my client on that, or is it more important that I just follow their instruction and help them find the home that they want?

On the one hand, as an expert, I should share my expertise with my client. But on the other hand, it’s not up to me to decide what my client does with that information. So, I would say definitely inform your clients, show them your expertise, but in the end, follow their instructions.

Give them what they want. You know, as a real estate agent, if you go through real estate school and you learn about how to protect your client’s best interests, one of the first things on that list is loyalty.

You need to be loyal to your client’s desires as long as they’re lawful, and try to get them exactly what they want for the best price, so they can have a life that they want to live. Be safe out there.