Change SC Laws: Renters Right-to-Know

South Carolina is plagued by illegal meth labs. More than 100 labs were seized statewide in 2008—a 6% increase from the year before. The labs are often full of toxic chemicals that can sicken inhabitants, officers seizing them, or anyone exposed. The toxic chemicals can cause a multitude of respiratory problems, and depending on the amount of toxic chemicals left behind, living in a former meth lab can cause these problems rapidly.

Even though toxic chemicals from meth operations are proven to be linked to adverse health effects, nobody is properly cleaning up these properties before allowing more people to live in them!

Why?

On average, it costs $2,500 to clean up a former meth lab properly. And to clean properly, you need environmental cleaners who are trained to remove toxins. Police officers do not have this training. After they seize a lab, they clean it up poorly and pass it on. People buy the property inexpensively and then turn it into rental property. In South Carolina, there is no part of the Landlord Tenant act that mandates landlords to disclose “environmental concerns” to tenants. That means that people are living in former meth labs with no knowledge of it!

This is about safety of renters in the state of South Carolina. There are more than 426,000 rental units in South Carolina. When there are health hazards in these units, landlords should be required to disclose these to their renters.