It is illegal for a landlord to knowingly rent out a property that is contaminated by methamphetamine (find out more about landlord responsibilities around methamphetamine contamination).
The tenant has a range of rights if methamphetamine contamination is detected by valid testing, provided that the contamination has not been caused by them or another person that they permitted to be on the premises, including other tenants or flatmates (s 59B RTA).
If the property needs to be decontaminated
The landlord must decontaminate any parts of the property where methamphetamine levels are greater than 15 µg/100 cm² (reg 5 Residential Tenancies Meth Regs 2026).
The tenant can stay living in the property while it is being decontaminated if they want to and it is safe to do so. The landlord must complete the decontamination as soon as practicable.
If the tenant doesn't want to, or is unable to, stay in the property, they should talk to the landlord about reducing the rent or paying for them to stay elsewhere.
The tenant and landlord should also discuss how to manage the tenant’s personal possessions as part of the decontamination process. Some items in contaminated properties may need to be decontaminated or removed to reduce the risk of recontamination.
If the property is not safe to live in
The tenant can give the landlord 2 days’ notice to end the tenancy if methamphetamine levels are above 30 µg/100 cm² in any area of the property (unless only “remote and inconsequential” areas are affected - see below) (reg 6 Residential Tenancies Meth Regs 2026) (s 59B(3) and (7) RTA).
At this level, the property is not safe to live in (uninhabitable). The tenant does not need to go through the Tenancy Tribunal to end the tenancy. The landlord also has the right to end the tenancy with 7 days’ notice (s 59B(6) RTA).
If methamphetamine is detected at uninhabitable levels in only remote and inconsequential areas of the property, the tenant or landlord must apply to the Tenancy Tribunal if they want to end the tenancy (s 59B(4) RTA). A part of the property is considered remote and inconsequential if it is physically separate from the rest of the property, or can be closed off in a way that prevents the spread of contamination to the rest of the property, and the rest of the property can be reasonably lived in without that area (s 59B(8) RTA).
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