Better late than never: New meth contamination rules for rental homes

Thursday, 9 October 2025

It has taken more than seven years, but the Government has finally announced new meth contamination regulations for rental properties ‒ and they come at a time meth use is on the rise.

Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka said a lack of legislative rules for acceptable levels of meth residue in rentals had caused long-standing confusion and disproportionate responses to low levels for too long.

Under the current national standard, properties with a level of more than 1.5 micrograms per 100cm2 qualify as contaminated, whether the contamination comes from meth being smoked or manufactured.

But from the mid-2010s there were growing concerns that rental properties with low levels of contamination were being pulled from the market to go through costly, extensive remediations that were not necessary.

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In 2018 a report by Sir Peter Gluckman, then the Prime Minister's chief science adviser, recommended that where meth had only been consumed, contamination would have to hit 15 micrograms per 100cm2 before decontamination was required.

Since then, confusion has reigned because the Tenancy Tribunal, the Real Estate Authority and Kāinga Ora adopted Gluckman’s recommended 15 microgram standard, while banks and most insurance companies stuck to the 1.5 microgram standard.

The Government did not start consulting on proposals for new regulations until early 2023, and the process seemed to stall after the change of government - until now.

Potaka said landlords and tenants deserved clarity on when rentals must be tested for residue, what should be done to ensure risks were managed, and how those issues should be navigated during a tenancy.

“Following extensive public and scientific consultation, the Government is establishing clear rules to ensure safe, cost-effective, and proportionate approaches are put in place.”

Under the new regulations, rental properties will be considered contaminated if meth residue exceeds 15 micrograms per 100cm2, and will require decontamination until levels are at or below that level.

If a property has meth residue levels above 30 micrograms per 100cm2, landlords and tenants will have the option of quickly ending the tenancy.

Landlords will be required to engage professional testers in specific circumstances where there is evidence of contamination, and testing and decontamination will have to follow scientifically robust processes.

Potaka said the Government was taking a safe, precautionary approach, and the regulations were expected to come into force next year.

A document accompanying the announcement stated that Standards New Zealand would be commissioned to review the existing standard to ensure consistency with the final regulations.

The new regulations come after wastewater testing data released in May revealed a significant increase in meth consumption in recent years.

It showed 15 kilograms of methamphetamine was consumed every week in the March 2019 quarter, but between January and March this year an average of 33kg was consumed each week.

Propertyscouts director Ryan Weir said the wastewater data might have given progress with the regulations a bit of impetus.

Meth use was picking up, not decreasing, and the risk of a rental property being contaminated with meth was now about three times more than it had been, he said.

“The clarification of what level is officially considered contamination is welcome. It means the situation is black and white for the first time since the Gluckman report came out.

“It gives those in the industry certainty where there was none.”

He had worked with many landlords who had to spend huge amounts of money to decontaminate rental houses that would not be considered contaminated under the new regulations, he said.

“It is still best practice for landlords to test their rental properties at the beginning of a new tenancy and in between tenancies.

“Because if they don’t it is not possible to hold the tenant accountable for any contamination that occurs during a tenancy, and insurers won’t provide cover.”

Weir felt the new 15 microgram limit was being introduced without any research showing that lower levels posed a health risk.

“Equally, there’s nothing to confirm that 1.5 micrograms is safe either - it’s a big assumption.”

Property Investors Federations spokesperson Matt Ball said the new rules seemed sensible and would provide certainty to everyone in the rental property sector.

The current situation where there was no regulated level, only guidance, caused confusion, worry and unnecessary stress and expense, he said.

“The proposed level of 15 micrograms is higher than the current guidance, will reduce risk and will, we hope, be reflected in lower insurance premiums.”

Another welcome change was enabling landlords to terminate a tenancy when contamination was above 30 micrograms, Ball said.

“That’s a level likely to be associated with a meth lab, and it sends a positive signal that meth production in rentals won't be tolerated.”

Dealing with a contaminated rental property was one of the most stressful and costly things a landlord had to handle, and the proposed regulations should make a bad situation easier to deal with, he said.

*CLARIFICATION: The residue level measures discussed in this article have been amended to per 100cm2 from per square metre.