BRYANT, Ark. (KTHV) - A Bryant homeowner is in a jam trying to sell her family's home, and the reason is not what you may think.
Meth is tying things up here. A testing company recently found dangerous traces of the illegal drug inside Camilya Collins home in Bryant. She had no idea the home had any drug ties before moving in with her husband and newborn daughter, and now trying to sell the place is a major hassle.
Camilya Collins hangs out with her daughter Kryi in the garage on this rainy Friday afternoon. It's really the only place they can be after recent sampling showed dangerous levels of meth inside the home.
"Found out it was above state limits, in every room," Collins said.
Collins gave us a copy of the testing report. It shows samples ranging from 2.6 times more than acceptable state limits to 340 times.
"What scared me the most is my baby was a newborn when we moved in," Collins said.
Collins and her family have since moved in with her parents. They found out about the meth after putting up the home up for sale for financial reasons and a promising buyer checked up on the house.
"He ran a raid report on my house and found out it had been raided by the Swat Team," Collins said.
She showed us copies of the raid report and an arrest document. It all happened some eight months before they moved in. The report mentions things like "two baggies of white powder substance," "numerous syringes" and scales.
"Number 46 is the question that states, is the seller aware of any unlawful chemical or drug substance or their manufacture within the property? And she stated no," Collins said.
It's a disclosure form as proof in her case. But cleaning up this mess and selling the house now is a real uphill battle.
"We've been to attorneys, we've talked to several different people, no one has really given us any answers," Collins said.
We did a little digging on our own to find out if Collins has any recourse here. What we found is that she can file a complaint with the State Real Estate Commission and have a hearing on the case if there's enough evidence. If the commission finds any violations, she can apply for financial assistance from a special state recovery fund. Collins and her family have to pay for all the meth testing and clean-up.
How much do sellers have to disclose? We talked to State Real Estate CommissionDeputy Director Andrea Alford. She told us that if you sell a home on your own, you don't have to disclose anything. But if you're working with a licensed real estate agent that agent must exert a reasonable effort to see if there's anything that could affect the property value or the sale. If that agent happens to be a member of the Arkansas Real Estate Association, there's one more layer. It's a through disclosure form that would cover things like drugs formerly used on the property.
We also learned that with crimes like murders and suicides on residential property, those details don't have be disclosed at the state and federal levels.