Jay Mcinnes

Mobile: 604-771-4606

EMAIL

Weed is legal and what that means to you buying or selling?

It’s here and it’s here to stay. Marijuana has been legalized and you can hear the roars of celebrations from 13-22 year olds all over Canada! Celebrations we’re sure rolled on through the weekend in the form of rap music and record sales of easily consumable goods a.k.a. ‘Munchies’.

Now other than a sharp rise in the sale of chips, poutine and donair. How is this going to affect you as a homeowner in your search to buy and sell property? Well first off all let’s take a look at what is actually legal in terms of what is allowed in a single residence. The magic number is 4 twenty.

As a homeowner, you are now allowed to produce up to 4 marijuana plants in a single residence, providing they are not viewable to the public. As to how this is going to be monitored, that remains to be seen. Most likely this will fall down to a complaint based process, or should law enforcement see the plants visible to the public. However, we shall have to wait and see.
This brings a new challenge to buyers looking to purchase property in which marijuana has been grown. Just because it is now legal, does not mean you want to jump into buying a home, or show no fear, buying a home used for cannabis growth. There are a number of concerns to look at, should your desired property fall into this category:

1. Growing these plants can attract pests - Pretty self explanatory as to why this is not desired. Given, those experienced in growth will know how to manage this, but with the legalization, more and more amateurs will be getting into the business.


2. The constant watering - Not so much of a problem, but these plants need to be in dark rooms with controlled climates, moisture in the air consistently can lead to mould and mould = bad.


3. Smell - The obvious one here, if the product is consumed inside the residence, this can leave a seriously undesirable after smell which is hard to get rid of…. Que the record sales of Febreeze!



It’s important when purchasing a property to discuss with your REALTOR on what you can do to either avoid homes currently/previously used to grow marijuana, or to make sure you’re taking the right steps to mitigate damages if you’re still happy to move in.
This kind of care needs to be taken when selling your home too, even if you are not looking to sell your property now, the above can be real problems when the time comes. Especially if you’ve accumulated them over the years. A mixture of appropriate safeguards in the form of clauses and property disclosure requirements will be key in you making sure you have all the facts and protecting yourself.

Finally, a very basic and common misconception, especially if you live in a condo, if your building does NOT permit smoking, this likely includes the smoking of marijuana too, so check your bylways. As with cigarettes, although they are legal, you are still not allowed to smoke. We’re envisioning a lot of Strata Councils coming together to amend bylaws which will restrict the growth of marijuana on the premises, if not already in place. So make sure you check bylaws on this as well, should you be thinking about starting your own operation!


As always, we hope to have educated and provided value! If you have any further questions about the changes to the legalization and regulations, feel free to visit https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/drugs-medication/cannabis/laws-regulations.html which has a great directory of a range of chapters on the topic. We’re happy to lend a helping hand to anyone looking to protect themselves against the dangers of marijuana growth in and around their homes.

Until next week!

Jay Mcinnes
jay@mcinnesmarketing.com
T: 604.771.4606

Ben Robinson
ben@mcinnesmarketing.com
T: 604.353.8523
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