{"id":15932,"date":"2018-11-19T01:00:54","date_gmt":"2018-11-19T06:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/?p=15932"},"modified":"2019-07-22T12:43:18","modified_gmt":"2019-07-22T16:43:18","slug":"do-you-have-to-disclose-growing-cannabis-when-selling-your-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/do-you-have-to-disclose-growing-cannabis-when-selling-your-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Do You Have to Disclose Growing Cannabis When Selling Your Home?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Dylan Dee<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now that recreational cannabis\u00a0<\/span><\/span>is legal, federal law allows Canadians to grow up to four plants per household. But Canada\u2019s real estate industry is mired in uncertainty over whether sellers and realtors must disclose if a home was ever used for cannabis cultivation \u2014 even if it\u2019s just a few legal plants.<\/p>\n

First, it\u2019s important to differentiate between four legally acquired plants and cannabis \u201cgrow-ops.\u201d A grow-op is a large-scale, illegal cannabis growing operation located inside a residential home. Grow-ops have always been illegal, and recreational legalization doesn\u2019t change that.<\/p>\n

Because grow-ops can contain up to hundreds of plants, they can lead to serious problems including mould and moisture in the air, behind the walls and in the floors. Residents may also have improperly retrofitted the home to grow cannabis, meaning they could have put in dangerous electrical wiring or cut holes into the ceiling.<\/p>\n

To minimize the health and safety risk of home cultivation, the federal government set the growing limit at four plants per household. Weed isn\u2019t the easiest plant to grow, but experts generally consider four plants safe as long as a space has adequate ventilation and proper wiring if extra lighting is used.<\/p>\n

Even if pot\u2019s legal, the stigma lingers<\/h2>\n

However, not all Canadians are cool with home cultivation. Forty-eight per cent of Canadians surveyed by Zoocasa<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>say they would reconsider purchasing a home if even a small amount of legal marijuana was grown there, while 39% believe increased usage inside a home would decrease its value.<\/p>\n

Just as cannabis laws vary by province<\/span><\/a>, so do real estate regulations. There\u2019s no way to be 100 per cent certain that a home hasn\u2019t been used to grow cannabis \u2014 legal or otherwise. Currently, the only way for a prospective buyer to know a house\u2019s history is if they ask directly, if the seller or realtor states it, if their home inspector discovers signs of damage, or if a neighbour tells them.<\/p>\n

If a realtor is aware of cannabis cultivation issues, it\u2019s generally their duty to tell any prospective buyers, but not necessarily if there\u2019s no damage to the home or the damage has already been fully repaired.<\/p>\n

To protect themselves, realtors will often include a clause in their contract with their client that says the seller has no knowledge that the home has ever been used to cultivate cannabis.<\/p>\n

Disclosure rules by province<\/h2>\n

While federal law sets the limit at four plants per household, Manitoba and Quebec have banned home cultivation all together. Most provincial real estate disclosure laws target \u201cmarijuana grow operations,\u201d but haven\u2019t yet been updated to distinguish between large-scale illegal grow-ops and homes used for lawful cultivation.<\/p>\n

Only Quebec has a law requiring sellers, in addition to realtors, to disclose a house\u2019s drug history even if no visible signs are present. In Manitoba, Winnipeg realtors are now forbidden to write in the MLS listing that the home was used to grow cannabis because of privacy and defamation concerns.<\/p>\n

In Ontario and British Columbia, realtors must inform prospective buyers of any factors that may affect the market value of the property, including any potential stigma attached to it. The Ontario Real Estate Association, in fact, is so worried about the potential rise of home cultivation that they\u2019ve created a campaign called Protecting Ontario Homes to lobby the government to impose more clear cut rules, train home inspectors, and reduce the number of legal plants allowed from four to one inside apartments and condo units.<\/p>\n

Alberta arguably has the loosest rules. As long as the home is fully repaired with no damages, no outright disclosure is needed and both the realtor and seller can remain silent to avoid answering if asked directly. If they answer, they must do so truthfully. It\u2019s likely a seller can grow plants for personal use without having to report it, as long as they didn\u2019t incur any damage to the property while doing so.<\/p>\n

What can buyers and sellers do?<\/h2>\n

Unfortunately, homes containing a couple of legal cannabis plants could be slapped with the same stigma as illegal grow-ops. If prospective buyers don\u2019t want to live in a home that fostered even a legal number of plants, they should hire an experienced home inspector trained in the signs of cannabis cultivation.<\/p>\n

Likewise, sellers worried about potential resale value should be prepared to answer questions about whether cannabis was ever grown in the home, the quantity, and for how long. Otherwise, they might want consider skipping adding a marijuana plant to their collection of rosemary and oregano and instead look up where to buy cannabis\u00a0<\/span>from legal provincial retailers.<\/p>\n

Dylan Dee is the community manager for <\/i>Lift & Co.<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/span>He\u2019s passionate about connecting cannabis experts with bud beginners.<\/p>\n

<\/i>Lift & Co. helps Canadians explore, understand, and make better-informed decisions around\u00a0cannabis strains<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0licensed producers<\/a>\u00a0through events, content, data insights and\u00a0cannabis reviews<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Dylan Dee Now that recreational cannabis\u00a0is legal, federal law allows Canadians to grow up to four plants per household. But Canada\u2019s real estate industry is mired in uncertainty over whether sellers and realtors must disclose if a home was ever used for cannabis cultivation \u2014 even if it\u2019s just a few legal plants. First, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":15933,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[487,113],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guest-posts","category-selling-your-home"],"yoast_head":"\nDisclose Growing Cannabis When Selling Your Home | Zoocasa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Do sellers always need to disclose growing cannabis when putting their home on the market? While a stigma lingers around the newly legalized drug...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/do-you-have-to-disclose-growing-cannabis-when-selling-your-home\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Disclose Growing Cannabis When Selling Your Home | Zoocasa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Do sellers always need to disclose growing cannabis when putting their home on the market? While a stigma lingers around the newly legalized drug...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/do-you-have-to-disclose-growing-cannabis-when-selling-your-home\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Zoocasa Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Zoocasa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-11-19T06:00:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-07-22T16:43:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Cannabis-at-home-e1541621445603.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lift and Co.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Zoocasa\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Zoocasa\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lift and Co.\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/do-you-have-to-disclose-growing-cannabis-when-selling-your-home\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/do-you-have-to-disclose-growing-cannabis-when-selling-your-home\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lift and Co.\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f295a07be7fc81a299824ef6ea26ce86\"},\"headline\":\"Do You Have to Disclose Growing Cannabis When Selling Your Home?\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-11-19T06:00:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-07-22T16:43:18+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/do-you-have-to-disclose-growing-cannabis-when-selling-your-home\/\"},\"wordCount\":839,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Guest Posts\",\"Selling Your Home\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/do-you-have-to-disclose-growing-cannabis-when-selling-your-home\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/do-you-have-to-disclose-growing-cannabis-when-selling-your-home\/\",\"name\":\"Disclose Growing Cannabis When Selling Your Home | Zoocasa\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-11-19T06:00:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-07-22T16:43:18+00:00\",\"description\":\"Do sellers always need to disclose growing cannabis when putting their home on the market? While a stigma lingers around the newly legalized drug...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/do-you-have-to-disclose-growing-cannabis-when-selling-your-home\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/do-you-have-to-disclose-growing-cannabis-when-selling-your-home\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/do-you-have-to-disclose-growing-cannabis-when-selling-your-home\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Do You Have to Disclose Growing Cannabis When Selling Your Home?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Zoocasa Blog\",\"description\":\"Home Buying & Selling Tips, Real Estate Market Trends & News\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Zoocasa\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/zoocasa-square-logo-800x800px.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/zoocasa-square-logo-800x800px.png\",\"width\":800,\"height\":800,\"caption\":\"Zoocasa\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Zoocasa\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Zoocasa\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f295a07be7fc81a299824ef6ea26ce86\",\"name\":\"Lift and Co.\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/89a9a6968c4d4e3a9237515bb845a33a6427ed5ef714dd95b1887152ea4f5879?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/89a9a6968c4d4e3a9237515bb845a33a6427ed5ef714dd95b1887152ea4f5879?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Lift and Co.\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/author\/lift-and-co\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Disclose Growing Cannabis When Selling Your Home | Zoocasa","description":"Do sellers always need to disclose growing cannabis when putting their home on the market? While a stigma lingers around the newly legalized drug...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/do-you-have-to-disclose-growing-cannabis-when-selling-your-home\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Disclose Growing Cannabis When Selling Your Home | Zoocasa","og_description":"Do sellers always need to disclose growing cannabis when putting their home on the market? While a stigma lingers around the newly legalized drug...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/do-you-have-to-disclose-growing-cannabis-when-selling-your-home\/","og_site_name":"Zoocasa Blog","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Zoocasa","article_published_time":"2018-11-19T06:00:54+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-07-22T16:43:18+00:00","og_image":[{"width":600,"height":400,"url":"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Cannabis-at-home-e1541621445603.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Lift and Co.","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Zoocasa","twitter_site":"@Zoocasa","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Lift and Co.","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/do-you-have-to-disclose-growing-cannabis-when-selling-your-home\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/do-you-have-to-disclose-growing-cannabis-when-selling-your-home\/"},"author":{"name":"Lift and Co.","@id":"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f295a07be7fc81a299824ef6ea26ce86"},"headline":"Do You Have to Disclose Growing Cannabis When Selling Your Home?","datePublished":"2018-11-19T06:00:54+00:00","dateModified":"2019-07-22T16:43:18+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/do-you-have-to-disclose-growing-cannabis-when-selling-your-home\/"},"wordCount":839,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Guest Posts","Selling Your Home"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/do-you-have-to-disclose-growing-cannabis-when-selling-your-home\/","url":"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/do-you-have-to-disclose-growing-cannabis-when-selling-your-home\/","name":"Disclose Growing Cannabis When Selling Your Home | Zoocasa","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2018-11-19T06:00:54+00:00","dateModified":"2019-07-22T16:43:18+00:00","description":"Do sellers always need to disclose growing cannabis when putting their home on the market? While a stigma lingers around the newly legalized drug...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/do-you-have-to-disclose-growing-cannabis-when-selling-your-home\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/do-you-have-to-disclose-growing-cannabis-when-selling-your-home\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/do-you-have-to-disclose-growing-cannabis-when-selling-your-home\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Do You Have to Disclose Growing Cannabis When Selling Your Home?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/","name":"Zoocasa Blog","description":"Home Buying & Selling Tips, Real Estate Market Trends & News","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Zoocasa","url":"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/zoocasa-square-logo-800x800px.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/zoocasa-square-logo-800x800px.png","width":800,"height":800,"caption":"Zoocasa"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Zoocasa","https:\/\/twitter.com\/Zoocasa"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f295a07be7fc81a299824ef6ea26ce86","name":"Lift and Co.","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/89a9a6968c4d4e3a9237515bb845a33a6427ed5ef714dd95b1887152ea4f5879?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/89a9a6968c4d4e3a9237515bb845a33a6427ed5ef714dd95b1887152ea4f5879?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Lift and Co."},"url":"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/author\/lift-and-co\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15932\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}