APRIL 27, 2006: CTV.CA

Toronto city hall is relying on the real estate profession to make sure potential buyers know if their dream home was once used to grow crops of marijuana.

On Thursday, city councillors gave full endorsement to a plan that would change every agreement of purchase and sale form used in Toronto.

The city is asking the Real Estate Corporation of Ontario to write a clause in every offer to buy or sell a home guaranteeing the property was never used as a grow-op.

Police Chief Bill Blair likes the idea.

"Currently we release a certain amount of information because when we do knock these places off we have search warrants there (and) that information is publicly released and it's in the public domain ... but I think we need to look at some standardization," Blair said.

Houses used to grow marijuana suffer from mould and structural problems that need to be remedied before the homes can be sold. In many cases, people have learned about their home's history after closing the sale.

Residents on one street started the ball rolling with municipal officials after raising alarm bells over a number of former grow-ops for sale, but the real estate listings said nothing.

"Both my son and daughter have bought houses in the last two years and if they would have bought something like that and hadn't known it was a grow-op and maybe had passed by the house inspection, it could have been a real problem, for sure," street resident Al Cobb said.

The motion was presented to city council by Scarborough councillors Norm Kelly and Mike Del Grande.

Council is also asking the Real Estate Corporation to investigate the sale of all former grow-op houses to see if there was full disclosure about the property's history.

If the history was not disclosed to the buyer, the city wants the broker or salesperson to be disciplined.

Meanwhile, Del Grande lists former grow-op homes on his website and Toronto Police 42 Division's website has useful information about recognizing potential grow-ops.