Councils in dark on meth cleanups

Councils in our two biggest cities say they are relying on residential property owners to come clean over methamphetamine decontamination work.

At present, there is no legal obligation for property owners to notify councils if P clean-up work has been carried out.

If the information is provided, the councils will add it to the land information memorandum – or Lim report – on the property, which outlines all information they hold about that address.

Wellington City Council said it had added meth decontamination information to just 24 Lims, comprising three addresses, since July 2014. Two properties were apartment blocks that included multiple tenancies.

Housing NZ revealed recently that it spent $51.9 million on P testing, decontamination and remediation of its state house portfolio in 2016-17 financial year.

Council spokeswoman Victoria Barton-Chapple said it could ‘‘only add information to the Lim that it is aware of’’.

Auckland Council also added meth decontamination information to Lims but relied on that detail being passed on to it.

‘‘Property owners may not report actual or potential methamphetamine contamination to the council,’’ said Auckland Council’s regional environmental control manager, Marcus Herrmann.

‘‘This may be for a variety of reasons, including uncertainty about remediation requirements ... or they believe the stigma attached to having the information on their property file will affect the value of their home.’’

Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) chief executive Bindi Norwell said there was no

"Many agencies are now requiring vendors to disclose ... whether a property has been exposed to meth or not."

REINZ chief executive Bindi Norwell

consistency across councils, ‘‘making it difficult for potential purchasers to understand local requirements’’.

Strict disclosure obligations governed by the Real Estate Agents Act meant agents selling a property had to disclose whether it had meth contamination, she said.

‘‘The difficulty is that some vendors may not disclose to the agent that the property has a history. Many agencies are now requiring vendors to disclose in writing, at the time of listing, whether a property has been exposed to meth or not. The information is then passed on to potential purchasers.’’

Insurance Council of New Zealand operations manager Terry Jordan was surprised at the low number of Wellington Lims being updated with meth decontamination detail.

He said there was little incentive for residential property owners to be upfront about whether remediation work had been carried out, even in cases where the health risk was low.

Almost all insurers have reviewed their policies over the past 12 months, with most of them continuing to cover meth-related claims with sub-limits.

‘‘Effectively, they’ll cover it up to a limit ... They’re still providing cover, and that’s good news,’’ Jordan said.