Tenant wants to grow medical marijuana

Medical marijuana is allowed in Maine. A person gets a card and can grow 4 plants. They must be hidden from public view and locked up. Tenant says he is going to put up a 8’ high fence about 4x6 with a lock on his lot…

Personally, I don’t care if he grows legally in his trailer. Outside, we have a no fence rule but I’d rather it be out of site anyway.

Am I setting myself up for trouble if I give him permission? Even though the lot is rented it seems technically, I would be giving someone permission to grow marijuana on my land which may be a federal crime. An alternative is to not give written permission and let him go ahead. State laws aren’t clear.

Tenant has been good but I expect will put up a fight if he can’t grow. An eviction could be challenged.
What would you do?

Your community rules should never be flexible or modified to tenants requests.

I would inform him that he is not permitted to grow marijuana on your land and leave it at that.
You will then need to monitor the tenant to insure that there is no additional traffic going to his home in the future.
Assuming the home is owned by him you have no right to enter of inspect what he does inside his own home.
If you own the home and he rents the home as well as the lot I would require him to show proof of the required medical documents permitting the growing of marijuana and be doing quarterly inspections in the home to insure he is following the law.
You should be contacting local authorities first and confirm the laws in your state.

I would talk to your insurance agent, your question is primarily about liability I’m assuming, and he/she would know better than anyone.

I would update your lease template to reflect the latest laws in Maine for marijuana to cover avoiding this for future tenants. But I have not seen anything that says, “You must be allowed to grow / cultivate cannabis” especially since it’s readily available elsewhere. Should tenants also force you to allow cattle on your land if someone has a doctor’s note that they must drink milk? :wink:

If this has been a tenant for only three months and they did not claim a disability then they may have lied on their application. Check the date with the authorizing Maine-based doctor. See when they first authorized this to see it jives with your lease application dates, and also make sure they didn’t get it on eBay and pulling a fast one on you.

I would agree that putting up a fence is not the right way to go if you find you must allow it. Ultimately might want to confirm with an attorney to make sure. There should be a lot of them.

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Andy
While I am a proponent of promoting entrepreneurial the spirit, this is a bad idea. If this was a forum on commercial real estate I could see this as a valid question. However, the first thing you need to look at is your zoning. Most MHCs are some sort of Residential classification – perhaps yours if different. However, as as residential, we have strict rules against any commercial related business in our park. Regardless of what the ME laws are, this is considered commercial.

Personally this opens a can of worms as it would:

  • Allow commercial activity in your * park
  • Open yourself up to a business that may be state allowed but not federal

Is this worth it???

If this tenant were to be a legitimate grower, they would make enough $ to rent a real commercial space.

Btw, do you know how much power those grow places require. Wanna bet on the odds of those MHs catching fire like a tinder box.

My 2 cents.

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OP is not posting regarding a commercial grow op. This is for personal medical use only.
If the tenant chooses to grow inside his home, assuming he has medical documentation, the community owner will have no say or control over the situation. They will simply have to monitor to insure that the resident does not expand into sales which would be illegal.
Although it may be legal a community owner should never agree to allow any tenant to grow the plants outside on their property.

As a medical marijuana patient and landlord, I couldn’t disagree more than with the posters above. I can see a can of worms regarding your denying a patient his chosen method of legal medicine. I can see getting sued big time by the tenant. What right to landlords have to say what legal medicine can be made/consumed in the home? If it were illegal, that would be different, but if this patient has a State medical m. card, he can smoke it in his house, grow plants indoors for sure, and outdoors if no disturbance is created for other neighbors. NOT WORTH AN EVICTION OVER, if the tenant was otherwise good. I can see you losing in eviction court in Medical M. states if that is your only complaint against the tenant.

A tenant absolutely has the aright to grow it in their own home.
In someone else’s home maybe but as a rental home the landlord has the right to inspect.
Outside on rental land absolutely not without the consent of the landlord.

If denying a tenant the right to grow marijuana outside on a landlords property results in the tenant moving I would say good riddance. No reason to value any tenant that cannot take no for a answer.

Andy…
I had a park 99% through due diligence and was preparing to sign in a day or two with a very well known regional bank for financing here in Washington State where marijuana is legal and very available. Two of the residents had medical marijuana growing operations in outbuildings on their lots. They called them collective grows which allowed them to grow up to a dozen plants each outside their homes. Anyway… talking to the lending rep and mentioned the two grow operations and you could hear a pin drop. Financing came to an absolute dead stop (I swear I heard them wheeling the shredder into the room to get rid of the paperwork too :slight_smile: They gave me a few days to work with the seller to eliminate the grows for an additional drive by inspection but seller was too old and tired to fight the tenants so everything just fell apart at the last minute. Banks answer to the Feds so I would tell the tenant to forget it. I put a ton of work into that deal… just to have it all puff away. Is that a good term?

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I read an article, I think it was in “The Journal”, the manufactured housing magazine, that talked about this issue.
The article said something to the effect that Marijuana is illegal at the Federal level, therefore its illegal period and landlords have the right to enforce their rules against it, no matter what state laws say. I have always enjoyed Greg’s posts, and I am not saying that he is for sure wrong, but I am not too sure about his comment that says “a tenant absolutely has a right to grow in their home.” I know our country has gotten to a point in which the Feds pick and choose which laws to enforce, but It is very much illegal on paper. Much like immigration, the Feds have not been enforcing the law, or at the least picking and choosing when to enforce the law.

The issue sure is changing, even though I don’t think any federal laws have actually changed on the subject. It is technically illegal.

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I think its safe to tell him no. If you find your tenant took all responsibility and the authority give him proper permission then after knocking the authority properly if you find a positive sign then you can let him do that. Otherwise not. Most dealers start with a medical marijuana then turn into others.

[quote=“mobilehomepark, post:10, topic:14592”]
not too sure about his comment that says “a tenant absolutely has a right to grow in their home.”

I should clarify that statement.by saying that in the case of a home owner situation there is no one that can say no to them except possibly the federal government. If the community owner chose to take the battle to the courts that would be their decision but they do not have the legal authority to prevent someone from growing in their own home.
It would be similar to any other illegal activity, the only way to prevent it would be through a legal battle…eviction.

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It is only a state law. Remember that it is still against Federal law to have marijuana in any amount. Therefore you can simply deny his request in my opinion.

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Understandable… it is there home but it is on your property- so to speak. Certainly not worth the kerfuffle if they keep it to 4 or 6 plants whatever it is now. Unfortunately like someone just mentioned this stuff can get out of hand and morph into other things. Sitting here thinking though we can ban pets, large dogs and even people under the age of 55 if we wish… I am probably mixing and mashing up different laws here but it is an interesting topic. Out of sight out of mind is fine but the less pot growing in my parks seems best to me.

Although Texas doesn’t have this issue yet. I have a rule of no planting anything in the ground in my park without my prior written permission. I enforce this rule basically due to water and sewer line damage but I can see how it might protect me from this question in the future.