Police Call For Greater Accountability from Landlords
09 November 2009
Are you a landlord? If so, you are probably already aware of the increasing instances where tenants are using rental properties in order to use them to grow vast quantities of Cannabis. In Scotland, this industry is now worth more than the legal farming of vegetables, and is often being carried out by gangs from South East Asia.
These gangs can destroy properties with their ‘farming’ operations. I visited one property that had suffered this fate, in suburban Birmingham, and the floorboards throughout the house (including the stairs) had been ripped up, leaving several thousand pounds worth of damage.
The kits used by these gangsters can also pose a serious fire risk.
Now, in Scotland, Det Supt Alan Buchanan of Strathclyde Police, the man leading a Police operation to uncover cannabis growing factories north of the border, has made it clear that he expects landlords to take their responsibility as guardians of not just their own property, but the area that the property is in, more weightily.
Speaking to the
BBC, he said that “60% of property owners affected [by the growing of drugs in their properties] in Scotland have taken no form of identification, have taken cash in hand and couldn't tell the police who's in their house and what it's being used for.”
I would argue that most responsible landlords would not feel comfortable being in a position where they did not know who was living in their property, or what it was being used for.
The 60% figure quoted above shows that it is clearly this type of landlord who allows for the gangs’ criminal activity, and Buchanan ends his interview with the BBC by reminded landlords that if they are getting rent from these gangs then they are directly profiting from illegality and crime.
The
Residential Landlords Association (RLA) has already picked up on this, stating that ‘Buchanan believes that landlords should be provided with more information on their responsibilities when it comes to ensuring that their tenants do not use their rented property for illegal purposes.’
Speaking as a landlord, I cannot imagine being a position where a property of mine would be left for long enough for it to be turned into a cannabis factory without me noticing. However, I personally know two people whom this has happened to. Both of these men are upstanding law abiders, who were at worse naive in not checking both their tenants, and also the upkeep of the property on a regular enough basis. Neither was being paid cash in hand.
There may be a small number of landlords who are aware that they are renting to either people who are in the country illegally (many of the caretakers of these factories are there to pay off people smuggling debts) or even to gangsters. However, the landlord is normally a victim of these criminals, not an accomplice.
Therefore, if there is a legislative attempt to force landlords to screen against the growing of drugs in their properties, they must be supported by the police – whose role should primarily be to give landlords the training and understanding they need to support their work in arresting these people, and reducing the damage that organised crime has on both individual properties and whole societies.