A new standard for methamphetamine contamination testing will provide clarity over whether a house is safe to live in or not, the owner of a Bay rental agency says.
Housing Minister Nick Smith this week announced the new standard for methamphetamine contamination, sampling and testing.
Mr Smith said the new standard was a "huge step forward" in helping homeowners and tenants deal with the risks of meth contamination.
The most significant change was the 1.5μg/100cm2 limit, compared with 0.5μg/100cm2 under the old guidelines. He said the new standard resulted from a better understanding of the health risks.
"It will give people greater confidence and certainty, will result in hundreds of fewer properties having to be vacated and save millions in unnecessary decontamination work."
Tauranga Rentals owner Dan Lusby said the new standard would let people know whether a house was safe to live in or not.
"They [tenants] will be able to rely on the houses being safe and healthy, and hopefully there will be less health effects."
Mr Lusby said the next step should be that a government body oversee the testing.
He encouraged landlords and property managers to carry out testing.
"From a professional property manager's point of view, property managers need to do the testing between tenants. It is one way we are going to stamp this out."
He was not aware of how many homes in Tauranga were affected but said he had personally dealt with two contaminated rental homes in the past year.
The Insurance Council of New Zealand supported the new standard for methamphetamine contamination, sampling and testing.
"There are numerous conflicting messages about meth contamination," Insurance Council operations manager Terry Jordan said.
"Insurers have seen increasing numbers of claims from property owners who are faced with levels of contamination from tenants passively smoking 'P' right through to contamination from meth labs."
Mr Jordan said the science relating to the health effects of meth contamination was not clear.
Internationally, there was a wide range of measures and different standards defining when a property was safe to re-occupy after meth contamination, he said.
"On balance, insurers support the increase which better reflects the current scientific understanding of the health risks of methamphetamine."
The objective of the standard was to identify methods of testing properties that provide reliable results.
In a media statement, the Insurance Council said claims for meth contaminated properties had been steadily rising and were now estimated to cost insurers in excess of $30 million a year or 100 properties per month.
Property owners needed to be aware of the requirement to disclose methamphetamine contamination in the properties to their insurer, said the council.