The costs of decontaminating your property following its use as a P-Lab, can run into the tens of thousands of dollars. This is on top of the consequential losses from missed and reduced future rental income. Additionally devaluing of the property, can quickly add up to more than a hundred thousand dollars. Some can’t be saved and have to be demolished. With “P” being a highly explosive drug to manufacture, there is always a high risk of fire.

Current protocol for all detected P-Labs discovered in dwellings are as follows:

(This process can take months to complete)

1. Police notify the appropriate Council.
2. The Council registers this on the property LIM report and notifies the landlord/owner and issues a cleansing order.
3. Once the scene is handed back to the landlord/owner, they must arrange for site toxicity levels to be carried out by an independent specialist.
4. Decontamination must be carried out by a professional decontamination company.
5. The landlord/owner must again arrange for site toxicity levels to be carried out by an independent specialist.
6. Councils  maintain details of the contaminated property on their register.

It is important to note:

• The Auckland Regional Public Health Service advises that, “no decontamination can guarantee absolute safety” once an area has been used as a P-Lab.
• Currently most New Zealand insurance companies do not cover the cost of testing and decontamination of residential properties in New Zealand. Insurance companies have also been known to refuse general insurances on the rental property if a P-Lab has been discovered, preventing the landlord renting out the property in future.