A landlord has come out on top in court after claiming that tenants’ furniture contaminated the rental property with methamphetamine.
An Auckland tenant has been ordered to pay $NZ16,000 after tests showed meth levels above the safe level.
After the tenant moved out, the landlord tested the property four times for meth, and some of the results showed the house was contaminated above the safe limit of 15 micrograms per 100 sq cm.
As a result, Sunnyville Property Management took the tenants to the Tenancy Tribunal, the NZ Herald reported.
“The kitchen and dining room are heavily contaminated as is the later sample of the storage room and the tenants’ sofa which had been used in the lounge during the tenancy,” the decision said.
The tenants tried to argue the contamination “may have occurred unintentionally as a by-product of bringing contaminated furniture into the property”.
However, tribunal adjudicator Bernadine Hannan did not accept that argument.
“The contamination levels found throughout the dwelling renders this claim improbable.”
The adjudicator also dismissed the tenants’ submission that they could not be held liable as the house was not tested before they moved in.
“It is more likely than not that the tenants have consumed, or allowed to be consumed, methamphetamine on the premises and this has led to contamination of the property requiring remediation,” she said.
To cover the costs of decontamination, chemical testing and repairs of smashed glass, the tribunal ruled the tenant pay a total of $NZ16,288.82.
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