How do you know if the house you're living in was a meth lab before you moved in? It can put you and your family at risk.

State law says if there is a meth lab inside a building, it's condemned until it's cleaned up. That process is quite extensive because of the dangerous chemicals used to make the drug, but what may surprise you, there are at least 400 places on that list, just in the El Paso and Teller Counties.

We found hotel rooms, storage units, homes, even apartments up for rent, still deemed unlivable. Lingering contamination could put unsuspecting homeowners or renters in danger. Many don't even know the criminal history of their homes.

"I'm upset right now. I'm shaking," one renter said as we told her that the home she and her family had been living for the past four months was a meth lab in 2003.

We visited her landlord. She wouldn’t open the door to speak with us, but shouted through it saying, “It’ll be taken care of. I don’t want to talk about it.”

"The state has a specific standard for landlords to tenants. It's a high standard. They can't expose a tenant to potentially hazardous environment. A lot of them do it and that’s why there’s a fair amount of litigation," said attorney Tim Gablehouse of Gablehouse, Calkins and Granberg, a law firm in Denver. He specializes in Methamphetamine laws.

He said when you buy a home or rent one, you have the right to know.

"The neighbors told me, the landlord didn't," said Brooke. Three years ago, when she moved in to a home on Cheyenne Road, she said she started to feel sick.

"My Pit Bull had sores, meth sores," said Brooke. Turns out, in 2002, police raided her home. They found a cache of weapons and a meth lab. We tried to talk to her landlord. The door was cracked open at her house, but no one answered. Now that Brooke is moving out, the place is back up for rent.

"The house is unlawful to occupy," said an undercover narcotics cop with the Metro VNI unit. He said homes should be condemned until properly cleaned because of the invisible danger left behind. Chemicals can lurk in the walls and carpet.

“Basically, you're sucking in second-hand Methamphetamine smoke."

Cops have busted more than 530 meth labs in El Paso and Teller Counties since 2001. 400 of those spots, cops said, could still be unsafe.

"There are still state laws and standards that say there has to be a cleanup, but there is no government agency that enforces those standards in El Paso County," said Jim Goodwin with the health department. With recent budget cuts, the agency doesn't have the money to condemn meth houses.

"Meth is just as big of a problem than it ever has been in Colorado Springs," said the undercover cop.

We paid a visit to a few hotels that apparently haven’t cleaned up rooms that were once used to make meth. The owners at the Budget Host Inn and the Super 8 both promised to take care of the problem.

"We find meth labs in million dollar homes to trailers," said Gablehouse. He said this is a problem no one can ignore.

Both of the renters in this story have since moved out of their homes.

The lawyer advises potential home buyers to talk to neighbors. See if there was anything strange going on at the house before you moved in. You do have the right to get a house tested before you buy it. It costs anywhere from $800 to $2,000 dollars.

If you would like to see the list of former meth labs that still haven’t been cleaned up,
Click Here

To speak to an industrial hygienist about getting your house tested, contact Health and Environment Technology.