This session covers the growing problem of marijuana grow houses and fraudulent homeowner insurance claims. Criminals, to include organized crime (OC), buy houses, even highend homes in upscale communities, and turn them into marijuana grow houses. They frequently use arson to gut the homes and cover up the construction of an industrial grow facility in the home. They are also known to make a fraudulent homeowner fire claim to fund this covert construction. When law enforcement eventually discovers the crime/home, the owner (OC) claims their renter converted the home without their knowledge. The home owner then submits a homeowner vandalism claim to fund repairing the house for resale. In 2018/19, a National Insurance Crime Bureau investigation of OC in Southern California disclosed the last three questionable homeowner claims related to this problem averaged $250,000.00 per claim. Even though marihuana is now legal in many states, this illegal grow house problem is on the rise in those same states. This session explains why. The session covers the insurance/legal & law enforcement aspects in recognizing and countering this “growing” problem.
