Latest figures from the Home Office report that the police raid around 3,000 cannabis factories in the UK each year, most of which are established in rented houses, seizing around 650,000 cannabis plants worth in the region of £60m.
While grow-your-own maybe good news when it refers to potatoes and tomatoes, cannabis farming is creating a growing risk for letting agents and landlords. PROPERTYdrum’s recent research has uncovered reports of cannabis farming in rented homes in almost every county in the UK. Often the farms are only discovered when the property catches fire; a constant risk as the plants are grown under intense heat and light lamps, powered by electricity leached from the national grid through illegal and unsafe wiring. Because the activities are criminal, the landlord’s insurance will not usually cover the damage, leading to potentially huge losses.
Letting Agents are aware of the issue but a surprising – and increasing – number of tenants are managing to convince agents that they are bona fide tenants, before going on to bring in ‘gardeners’ to live in the property, establish the farm and grow the plants, without being discovered until the damage is done.
In one of dozens of recent hauls, Kent Police found more than 420 plants with an estimated street value of £10,000 in a rented house in Rochester. Detective Inspector Eddie Fox from Kent Police's Serious and Organised Crime Unit, said, "The action today was the result of the local community in Rochester coming forward to Kent Police with information about suspected drug activity. I would like to thank the public for their support in helping us to identify the address as a place where cannabis was being cultivated and would encourage anyone else who may have concerns that drugs are being grown in their neighbourhood to get in touch with us.
"I would also like landlords to think carefully about who they rent their properties out to. Cannabis factories can cause a lot of damage to a property as well as the risk they pose when the electricity is tampered with. If you have any concerns that someone renting your property could be involved in illegal activity like this, then we want to hear from you.
"We are committed to tackling those involved in this type of serious criminality and taking them out of our communities."
The find is the latest in a series of crackdowns on drug activity across the Medway towns. Officers at the Medway drugs team have already secured a number of convictions against men dealing Class A drugs across the towns totalling over 100 years in the last 18 months.
