How the Lexington Scene Recovery line works

A referral service, not a cleanup crew

The line is an advertising and referral service that earns a fee when a call connects. Independent cleanup businesses take calls from the parts of the region they work, from Bell Court and Kenwick near downtown out to Jeffersonville in Montgomery County. Whatever you end up paying for the job goes to that business, not through us.

No trucks, technicians or crews belong to this line, and nobody from it will come to your door on Southland Drive or anywhere else. Nor does the line give legal or medical advice. Questions about a lease, an estate or an insurance policy belong with your attorney, your adjuster or the right office at LFUCG or your county courthouse.

What happens when you call

Expect a few plain questions: the street address or ZIP, what happened, which rooms or surfaces are affected, whether officers and the coroner's staff have cleared the house, and whether you own it or rent. A student duplex in 40508, a newer Masterson Station house and a farmhouse outside Winchester each bring different people into the decision.

With those answers we put you through to a business that works at that address, and you settle timing, scope and cost with them yourself. Nothing obliges you to hire them. If you would rather think it over, hang up and call back later; the same number works from Stamping Ground to Hartland.

Questions to put to any cleanup crew

Before anyone carries equipment into a Gardenside house or a downtown condo near Triangle Park, get clear answers to the questions below and write them down. A reputable company expects them and answers plainly.

Kentucky has no cleanup rule written for fentanyl or other drug residue; its decontamination statute names methamphetamine only. On those jobs, find out how surfaces will be tested and what results you receive, which matters later if you sell, since the Kentucky Real Estate Commission's seller disclosure form asks about meth contamination.

Who pays for the cleanup

Homeowner's and renter's policies may cover sudden damage at home, but coverage depends on the policy, so phone your adjuster before work starts and share the written scope. Owners of UK-area rentals and the apartment complexes along Versailles Road have their own property policies to check; tenants should tell the property manager promptly.

After a crime, the Kentucky Crime Victims Compensation Board can reimburse cleanup at the victim's primary residence or business. KRS 49.370 caps that at $2,000, requires the work within 30 days of the crime and limits any one claimant to $50,000 in total. Expect to show where the crime happened, photos or other proof of need, invoices and proof of timing. Staff review police records and usually want a report, so hold on to your Lexington Police or Georgetown Police case number. Insurance payouts reduce the award.

Privacy of your call

Calls to the line may be recorded, and the details you give are passed to the independent company your call reaches so they can talk through the job. We do not post caller names, addresses or what happened anywhere on this site. A neighbor on your Idle Hour street or your Hamburg cul-de-sac will not hear about the call from us.

Discretion at the house is a matter to settle with the company. Ask whether its vehicles are marked, where a dumpster or trailer would sit, and whether work can happen when fewer neighbors are around. Among the Hamburg Park townhomes or on a shared Kenwick driveway, those details count.

When 911, LexCall 311 or 988 should come first

Dial 911 for any emergency, a death just discovered, a crime in progress or someone in danger. A mobile 911 call placed in Fayette County can land with the state police, who hand it over to the city's officers. For a report that is not urgent, use the Lexington Police non-emergency line, or the city police in Georgetown, Winchester or Mount Sterling.

LexCall 311 takes reports about unsafe housing, overgrown lots and nuisance conditions, which Code Enforcement then looks into, so it fits a neighbor's hoarded house you can only see from the sidewalk. The Lexington-Fayette County Health Department handles rodents, bedbugs and sewage complaints. Worry that an older or disabled adult can no longer care for themselves goes to Adult Protective Services at the Cabinet for Health and Family Services.

Thoughts of suicide, your own or a family member's, are reason enough to dial or text 988, which reaches the free and confidential Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. Kentucky 211, reached by dialing 211, points families toward housing, food and other help after a loss.

What happens after the work is done

Ask for a final walkthrough, then keep the invoice, photos and any test results together, because adjusters and the compensation board in Frankfort both ask for them. On a property posted for meth, the contractor submits a Certificate of Decontamination to the Energy and Environment Cabinet within 60 days, and the notice stays on the door until the local health department authorizes its removal after the cabinet releases the property. In Fayette County that office is the health department on Newtown Pike.

Sellers should know that Kentucky's standard seller disclosure form asks about meth contamination and professional decontamination but has no question about a death or crime in the house. Whatever else you may owe a buyer in Lansdowne or Beaumont is a question for your attorney or real estate agent.