Tenants land couple in meth house ruin

A young family who moved to Canterbury for a better life is staring down the barrel of bankruptcy after their Blenheim home tested positive for methamphetamine.

The couple, who asked not to be named, moved from Marlborough to Rangiora last year, leaving behind their home of 10 years in Blenheim, which they decided to rent out.

They tried to sell the house, which had been in the family for two generations, but a lack of demand meant they were left with little option but to lease the property.

‘‘That was probably the worst decision of our lives,’’ the woman said.

After renting in Rangiora for almost a year, they put their Blenheim house back on the market so they could buy their own place in Canterbury.

Soon after they received a call from their real estate agent saying the house was in a mess. They scheduled a maintenance inspection.

‘‘I walked in the house and smelled chemicals straight away,’’ the woman said. ‘‘I got as far as the second bedroom and said to [my husband], ‘I can’t do this’. It was just heartbreaking, it was unbelievably heartbreaking.’’

‘‘[My husband] continued through the house and found holes in the walls, in the doors – there was dog crap everywhere and there was so much rubbish in the front yard.’’

The visit, combined with advice from a friend, prompted the couple to get the house tested for meth contamination. The results came back showing residual levels of the drug at 10.8 micrograms per 100cm2, at least five times more than the threshold recommended by the Ministry of Health.

The couple had to pull the house from the market; and because the Marlborough District Council was notified, the fact the property was contaminated was also put on the LIM report.

‘‘Even if we were to renovate it, the value won’t go up because it’s on the LIM report, people will know it as a P house, and the stigma around that means they won’t buy it,’’ the man said.

‘‘We won’t be able to sell it for what we owe on it, so we’ve lost all the equity in the house and at this point of time we’re facing bankruptcy,’’ his wife added.

The council issued a repair order under the Health Act. If it was not complied with, the council could issue a closing order, which deemed the property uninhabitable.

They would also have to pay for another inspection to check the work had been successful, money they did not have and which they were doubtful they could recover from the tenants or their insurance company.

The couple bought the house from the woman’s parents when her father fell ill, and later died. She grew up in the house, as did her children, and said their memories had been tainted by the experience.

‘‘I just find myself constantly apologising to my dad for this mess, hoping he can hear me,’’ she said.

‘‘We can’t sell it, not unless there’s a millionaire out there that’s willing to take it off our hands.’’

The husband said their experience showed landlords needed more rights, both to be able to conduct meth contamination tests and

"[A positive meth test] on it's own it's not going to be sufficient for police to arrest someone."

to evict tenants. Tenants could refuse the tests if they were not included in their tenancy agreements, he said.

The husband also wanted more powers given to police to investigate on the basis of contamination reports.

‘‘I think if the cops get tests like this they need to be able to act on them,’’ he said.

‘‘[Police] need to be able to go through and search the house, and as a landlord you need to be able to get them out on the spot, preferably with police help.’’

Blenheim community Constable Russ Smith said police welcomed information from the public, but said a test showing positive meth contamination was not enough to arrest someone.

‘‘It could conceivably be a useful piece of information that would help police to make further inquiries, but on it’s own it’s not going to be sufficient for police to arrest someone,’’ he said.

‘‘If the owner or the landlord has the house tested subsequent to someone staying in it, the test may come back positive but that’s not necessarily evidence that the person in the house was doing drugs,’’ Smith said.

A Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment spokeswoman said for a tenant to be evicted for using meth, landlords had to file an application with the Tenancy Tribunal.

This should include a police report for supporting evidence, along with any contamination reports, she said.

Landlords ‘‘may be able to claim costs of remedial work to restore the property through the Tenancy Tribunal’’ if the tenants were shown to be using meth, as it would be considered intentional damage.