A recent Tenancy Tribunal case in Tauranga indicates that methamphetamine can still be a major headache for landlords, even post-Gluckman report. It also sends a clear message to tenants using or manufacturing “P” in rental properties – it’s likely to end in eviction.

Accessible Properties Limited was granted the possession of a home in Bellevue, Tauranga, after it was determined that the tenant Stephen Sines had been either smoking and/or cooking methamphetamine in his rental property. He had also allowed other people to move into the premises, a further breach of his tenancy agreement.

Sines had lived in the home since June 20, 2017, with his mother, and when she entered a care home in 2018, took over the tenancy alone. He was the only person permitted to live there. Soon after this, the landlord began to receive complaints from neighbours around antisocial behaviour at the property, with people coming and going at all hours, excessive noise at night, drug use and police presence.

The landlord provided the Tribunal with documentation from the Police, in which Sines admitted to smoking methamphetamine. They also provided evidence via the Police and probation verifying that other people were living there.

In June this year, the landlord commissioned a composite screening at the premises, which revealed high levels of methamphetamine (32μg/100cm2) in two locations. A further test revealed high levels of methamphetamine in every area tested, apart from the ceiling. There were also traces of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine (precursors) throughout the premises, indicating that methamphetamine was likely to have been manufactured there. Sines was given notice by the landlord, which he accepted, but then retracted, in mid-July. At the time of the hearing (September 7) he was still at the house.

Adjudicator A Macpherson agreed with the landlord’s submission that the levels of methamphetamine found were significantly beyond safe occupancy levels. She agreed that the tenancy was validly terminated and ordered immediate possession to the landlord.