Property Used As Meth Lab Spells Disaster For Homebuyer; Forced To Quit Job Due To Illness, Home Now In Foreclosure

In Fort Wayne, Indiana, The Journal Gazette reports:

• The headaches, muscle aches and breathing problems began shortly after she moved in, but Julie McCoy Sabatino was slow to blame her house for making her sick. She was shocked to realize she should: Methamphetamines had been produced in the house, just months before she bought it. Several years after the state began requiring counties to maintain records, Indiana’s accounting of its meth houses remains patchwork and incomplete. And because those public records go back only a couple of years in a state where meth has been a major problem for more than a decade, they are no help to people like McCoy Sabatino.

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• The previous owner – who had rented out the home to tenants who were arrested in connection with producing meth – said she had washed the walls of the home with bleach and other cleaners six times in an effort to properly clean it, according to a copy of the correspondence provided by McCoy Sabatino. That probably wasn’t enough, according to federal guidelines on meth-lab cleanup recently issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The drug can seep into countertops and drywall. Most carpeting should probably be replaced. The remaining surfaces should be professionally tested for contamination, according to the guidelines. All this can come at wildly variable cost to the homeowner – from $5,000 to $150,000, the EPA report said. Property owners, even those not cooking meth themselves, typically foot the bill.

• McCoy Sabatino said the health effects from living with meth’s ghosts forced her to quit her factory job and apply for disability benefits. [...] Three years after she bought the home, it’s gone into foreclosure. McCoy Sabatino said she couldn’t afford payments because of her family’s medical bills and her job loss. She said she doesn’t see the point in paying on a house she’s come to see as a death trap.

For the story, see Old meth lab poisons dream home (State recordkeeping largely outpaced by makers of drug).

In related stories, see:

• The Journal Gazette: Cleaning up after meth,
• The National Law Journal: Meth Lab Residue in Homes Triggers Litigation (Lawsuits over contaminated homes focus on failure to disclose issue). meth lab yak