The Housing Complaints Committee believes that a landlord is entitled to compensation from a tenant for damage caused to an apartment in the process of cannabis cultivation, RÚV reports. The crop was discovered when a resident in the flat below reported a leak in their ceiling. According to the Board of Appeals, this resident contacted the landlord about the leak in October of last year.
The insurance company was called in to assess the damages to the pot-growing apartment, but the tenant said he lived in Spain and could not access the apartment. The insurance company did not want anyone to enter for 48 hours while they were conducting their investigation. However, urgent action was necessary because icicles were hanging down the windows. They called a locksmith and police to open the apartment, and discovered that it was heavily damaged.
The apartment was completely flooded. All the cabinets and windows were swollen with moisture, and the kitchen was covered with mold. Several tents full of marijuana plants were floating in the mess. The investigation revealed that the tenant’s son was responsible for the cannabis cultivation.
The tenant himself believes he should not be held responsible for the water damage, because his son had only been growing weed for three months, which is not enough time to cause the level of damage that the landlord is claiming. Rather, the damage is a result of years of neglect by the previous owner of the apartment.
However, the Board of Appeals believes that all evidence clearly indicates that there has been significant damage to the apartment due to the growth of cannabis. They threw out the current tenant’s claim that the previous owner’s negligence caused the damage, as there is no other evidence that adequately tracks with the extent of the damage to the apartment. The Board has not decided how much the landlord should be compensated, but the landlord is asking for just under 4 million ISK.
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