It’s unlikely you would buy a house without first getting a pre-purchase Building and Pest inspection and report.
Methamphetamine is known by various street names including ‘speed’, ‘base’, ‘meth’, ‘ice’, ‘crystal’ or ‘crystal meth’, ‘amphetamines’, ‘whiz’ and ‘goey’.
According to a study by the Medical Journal of Australia the number of Australians using the illicit drug has almost tripled over the past five years. The study shows there are 268,000 regular users in Australia, with over half of those classified as heavy users of the drug.
Unfortunately, we frequently hear from customers who have unwittingly bought or rented a house only to discover, often after moving their family in, that the house was previously occupied by users of methamphetamine.
And it’s not uncommon for heavy users of ice to turn to manufacture and dealing the drug to help fund their expensive habit.
Family homeless after dangerous traces of meth discovered in rental home
A recent article in The West Australian highlights exactly how easy it is to be caught out.
Between selling their own home and buying another, a Perth family moved into a rental home and within a day discovered evidence of ice use by previous occupants.
Two weeks later, the entire family had become unusually ill so they organised drug testing of the home to be carried out.
“My younger sons have stomach aches… and my older son’s got a sore throat and had quite a severe cough, I get headaches every day and night,” mother-of-three Anna Rushton told Today Tonight.
When the test results returned readings exceeding 12 times above the level considered to be dangerous, they packed their bags and immediately left the property.
Further testing confirmed that the entire house was contaminated with an estimated clean-up bill of tens of thousands of dollars.
Not only that, but it is quite likely that many of the family’s possessions, including furniture, bedding, clothes, and kids toys may also have become contaminated and will need to be replaced.
Even low level traces of ice can be a health risk
Even low levels of meth contamination can be unsafe especially for young children who often spend a lot of time crawling on floors, and who tend to pick up toys which then go into their mouth.
People who are ill or have a low immune system are also at increased risk from contamination from meth and the dangerous chemicals used in its manufacture.
Common exposure is through skin contact with surfaces containing meth residue or though inhalation of chemicals and organic compounds. This can lead to serious health issues with side effects including disrupted sleep, anxiety, respiratory problems, rashes, children with inattention or ADHD-like behaviour psychosis and damage to the brain, liver and kidneys.
Meth test report may be a future requirement for mortgage or insurance
The huge uptake of meth use in New Zealand means that the property conveyancing and rental management industries have taken the lead when it comes to awareness and testing for methamphetamine contamination.
It’s now time for Australia to follow suit to help reduce the number of innocent victims being caught out by the growing use of this drug in our communities.
It is unlikely that testing for meth will become mandatory in Australia. However, in New Zealand, some lenders won’t approve a mortgage until a meth-clean report has been provided.
And many NZ insurance companies are now including meth-specific clauses to their policies that call for regular testing of rental properties to ensure they are covered against damage from tenants.
You can be certain that Australian banks and insurers will be watching these moves with interest.
Buying a property? Building and Pest, tick ….. and meth test, tick
If you are planning to buy a property (or move into a rental home) a simple, inexpensive presumptive meth test could save you from making a costly mistake.
And a recent renovation could be hiding a nasty secret. If contaminated surfaces have been just painted over and floors re-carpeted rather than properly cleaned, the dangerous chemicals can still seep out of the walls and floors presenting a health risk to the occupants for many years.
You can either carry out testing yourself using Narcotect D4D PenTest kits, or request that your building inspector carry out testing for you when doing a pre-purchase Building and Pest inspection.
The Narcotect D4D PenTest is simple-to-use, inexpensive and gives you a result in seconds for up to ten different drug types, including several precursor chemicals used in the manufacture of meth.
If your building inspector isn’t offering meth testing as an option with the Building and Pest, ask them why. And then suggest that they contact us here at Narcotect to find out how easy it is for them to offer this valuable service, one that could save their clients from investing in an expensive dud.
Don’t risk it. Test it.
