There’s a proposal to organise a local private landlords association after a Queenstown resident found herself trapped in a meth related tenancy situation that has denied her access to her own property.
One of the key issues in researching this story is that the Government via Tenancy Services is using a meth contamination threshold that is 10 times more than the current official meth contamination standard.
Tamsin Orr Walker, who is chair of the Kea Conservation Trust and who was awarded the MNZM in 2020 for her wildlife work, rented a tiny home on her Gibbston property to a tenant in October 2024.
The tenant initially caused no problems, but within a couple of months a second person arrived on the property. It turned out this person, who had a habit of wandering around the property semi-naked, had drug connections and was “a person of interest” to local police.
From there things went downhill rapidly when the original tenant stopped paying her rent and there was increasing evidence of drug related activity. Ms Orr Walker found that her garage was filled up with new tenants property and generally she and her family felt threatened and at risk.
After many weeks of chasing rent payments, and details of who the newly arrived person was, both tenants left. The rent was overdue and the carpets and curtains had been stripped from the tiny home. A private meth test produced a result that was twice the legal limit.
But this was just the beginning of the real nightmare.
