Housing New Zealand is testing 19 of its Wanganui properties for traces of methamphetamine after the drug was detected in three of the homes it has for sale.
It comes after a woman commissioned her own testing of a Wanganui state house she was preparing to buy under the Government’s FirstHome programme to get rid of surplus homes.
Concerned about the fact that sections of the house’s carpet had been ripped up, the woman spent $250 on a methamphetamine test which revealed traces of the drug, prompting her to opt out of a sale and purchase agreement she had entered into to buy the house.
She later wrote to MPs expressing her concern.
Housing New Zealand said since the woman made them aware of the result they had undertaken further testing but were still waiting on results.
“As this is the third instance of methamphetamine being identified in a Wanganui house we have on the market, we are this month trialling a pilot programme in Wanganui that will test homes for methamphetamine to determine whether they are fit for sale on the open market,” property services general manager Marcus Bosch said.
The 19 Wanganui properties are already listed for sale.
No homes would be sold until those houses were cleared, he said.
Seven homes have been tested so far, with P detected in three.
When detected, remedial measures could range from specialised cleaning through to re-fitting a property or even demolition, he said.
Labour’s housing spokesman Phil Twyford said it “beggars belief Housing NZ is flogging off broken down old state houses that have turned out to be P-contaminated”.
“Kiwis want a first house not a P house.”
With 400 state houses to be sold under the programme, he suggested the problem could be wider than Whanganui.
“[Housing Minister Nick Smith] must guarantee that all these houses will be tested for P contamination before they are put on the market, and if any show traces of meth it must be included in any marketing.”
Twyford said there had been 22 Housing New Zealand properties contaminated by P since 2011 and a further eight demolished at a cost of several hundred thousand dollars a year.
– © Fairfax NZ News
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