Sarina Gibbon: Tenancy Advisory Director on the new meth contamination rules set to impact rental properties

Tenants and landlords may soon have more powers to end an agreement over methamphetamine contamination.

The Government is establishing clear standards for the amount of contamination legally allowed in rentals. 

If there is meth residue levels of 15 micrograms per 100 square centimetres, the landlord must address it.

Tenancy Advisory Director Sarina Gibbon says a tenancy can be quickly ended if levels are double this - and she explained that in these cases, it is quite likely meth has been manufactured on site. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Got some new rules for meth contamination of rental properties.
The Housing Ministry has determined that a house with meth
levels of over fifteen micrograms per one hundred square meters
must be decontaminated, and if the levels had double that thirty,
either the landlord or the tenant can walk away from
the lease within a week. Now it still needs Cabinet
sign off, but it's expected to come into force next year.

(00:21):
Serena Given is the director of Tenancy Advisory and with
US high Serena, Hey, Heather, how are you good? Thank you?
The sound like common sense to you.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Super common sense. And also, in fact, these levels or
at least a fifteen micrograms level has been in place
since US far back as twenty seventeen, and that's the
legal president's being set by the district courts. So the
tribunal have been applying that level for a number of
years now.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
Okay, so why are we letting it get to thirty?
What is thirty? Does that denote that something more serious
has been going on in the property?

Speaker 2 (00:57):
Yes, I think based on I'm pretty sure that based
on the science that we're aware of, thirty will give
a primer facie case of more likely than not they
had been manufacturing on site, and it's deemed as more
contaminated and more damaging and dangerous to the occupants of
the property.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
Okay, in which case, why would a landlord have to
give the tenant seven days notice? I mean, if that's
been manufacturing on site, surely you want to kick them
out within the hour.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
Yeah. Absolutely. And look, the way the uninhibitability provision works
with the RTA is that as long as the party
is not at fault. So in the case of a
tenant tenant cause contamination, the landlord gives a seven day notice.
The landlord can give noses to tenant cannot give the

(01:47):
notice if the property was supplied to the tenant in
the first place. At over that thirty microgrammar level, it
is deemed as the landlord is the party at fault.
The tenant gives a two day notice to terminate and
walk away quickly. And that is that disparacy between the
seven and two days is really in line with other
provisions of the RTA. That essentially reflects that the primary

(02:11):
purpose of the RTA is a consumer protection piece and
that it is stared ultimately to protect the tenants. So
the tenants walk away sooner and the landlord have a
bit more day, a few more days that they're going
to have to write with the tendancy.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
All right, Serena, thanks very much, appreciate it. You'll take
on it as Serena Gibbon, who is a Tendency Advisory Director.

Speaker 3 (02:31):
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