WEST VALLEY CITY — After a month of working to make renovations on their new home, a West Valley City family was evacuated from it. Now, it's been condemned because it's contaminated with meth.

Homeowner Linnette Harms she thought there were laws in place to protect people like them from buying homes like this.

Harms and her fiancé, Josh, spent the summer looking for the right home at the right price. "Everything looked good. It just needed a little bit of work," Harms said. "It was in our price range, (which) obviously having four kids to take care of is hard to find."

The foreclosed home had been on the market for a week when they made the offer. By August, the family had a home. They spent $5,000 and a lot of sweat equity renovating it.

"(We worked) every single night after work, and every single weekend for a solid month; everything we could do, every time we had we were here," Harms said.

During that time, Harms became ill with upper respiratory problems. That's when a neighbor revealed what was hidden inside the home: the residence had been a former meth house.

Methamphetamine tests came back at levels so high the health department closed entry to the house.

"They recommended that all the drywall that we've redone and painted be completely torn out," Harms said. "They have to use a heap vacuum to clean all the walls all the way down to the concrete pretty much, which would consist of redoing all the drywall. Everything is just trashed at this point."

Since her neighbor knew the sordid past of the house, maybe others did too. So Harms began digging and uncovered this 2008 West Valley City police report showing there had been two arrests made at the house for meth possession with intent to distribute and possession of drug paraphernalia.

"How could somebody not know that this house was contaminated? Why didn't they disclose it before we signed the papers?" Harms wants to know.

West Valley Police Sgt. Mike Powell says state law requires law enforcement to contact the health department if they stumble across a meth lab. If the previous owners had a meth lab and police knew about it, Powell says the health department would have been notified.

"In this particular circumstance, that was not the case. There was no indication of manufacturing or the operation of clandestine drug lab," Powell said.

At least not at the time police were there. Powell says in the years since, West Valley City police did not make any other drug arrests at that home.

Related:

KSL 5 News Investigates meth and the Salt Lake County housing authority

A Kearns mom called KSL for help, concerned that the home she and her children had been moved into was making them sick. A KSL 5 News investigation quickly discovered this home has a troubled past with meth contamination -- something her landlord never disclosed.

State Rep. David Litvack wrote the 2004 legislation requiring law enforcement to report methamphetamine labs to the health department. He says his intent was to include anything suspicious that would lead police to believe there could be a meth lab.

"We wanted to create a process that we could say to the public ‘this house is contaminated,'" Litvack explained. "I've been frustrated, angry, sad all the way," Harms said. She says her family is determined to fix the problem and will not walk away and let the home foreclose.

"I'm not going to. I'm too strong," Harms said. "I'm just going to keep going until it's resolved and my kids have a nice, comfortable, clean house to live in."

She and her husband are relying on the proceeds from yard sales and donations to try and get the house fixed, but it won't come cheap. To decontaminate the house, it will take an estimated $8,500. Then to replace the drywall, carpet, appliances, they will have to pay another $35,000.

If you would like to donate money* to help the family with the repairs, you may at any Utah Central Credit Union under the name of condemned house or contaminated meth house.

Email: lprichard@ksl.com

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*ksl.com has not verified the accuracy of the information provided with respect to the account nor does ksl.com assure that the monies deposited to the account will be applied for the benefit of the persons named as beneficiaries. If you are considering a deposit to the account you should consult your own advisors and otherwise proceed at your own risk.

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