:evil: :evil:
Rick,
ITs no joke, and in some areas can be a real pain in the *** for us to find out about, and frankly I don't really want to KNOW as I 'am no expert'!!!.
Hubby did a rural repo where the "Do not cross tape" and "EPA warning stickers" had carefully been removed by the Realtor. He got suspicious as the windows had all been blown out of the structure, and started asking questions. The state DID have it on their unpublished contam site list but it took a lot of digging to discover this fact! Checking the arrest record for an address can sometimes tip you off. In his case the KBI got real interested real fast when he made inquiry... they wanted HIS name rank serial number... and it took some 'splaining before they would beleive he didn't have some sort of association with the place, just because he inquired 8O ! :?
I did a REO last year, where I looked into the crawl and found equipment that surely LOOKED like an abandoned clandestine lab: it took no less than 12 phone calls to get anyone to even listen to me! And then because I was not the owner I could not get anyone to take an interest in even cleaning up the trays bottles and other (potentially contaminated) acoutrements! :evil: Let me give you a clue: when you see an atypical water tap (add on) in a crawl space with hose hanging, trays glass bottles, heating equipment and other such items back out quick!
The degree of toxicity is to some extent dependant on whether they were 'cold cooking' or doing a 'hot cook' if they were making meth. Hot cook-sites are NO place for even adult people and HIGHLY toxic to children.
It doesn't take much exposure to such a property to result in permenant brain damage to kids. And there is no smell or readily observable sign that will tip you off if the equipment IS removed.
States should be FORCED to place bust sights on a web page, AND record on the deed, so that appraisers and other concerned folk (TITLE COMPANIES) can find out about such issues.... In my opinion :evil: