By Elizabeth Davies
We’re always told you can pick your friends but you can’t pick your family. Sure you can stop talking to the crazy ones, you can cut people out of your will or only see them on special occasions, treat them like church and make them a duty you perform once or twice a year, but they are who they are, no changing them.
The unfortunate reality is whether you buy or rent, you also can’t pick your neighbours. You can find your dream home, in a great area, with a pretty bay window, a picket fence, claw foot bath and the prefect guest room come nursery and still there are no guarantees the people next door won’t let their dog poop on your lawn, steal your mail or go through your trash.
You only have to watch shows like ‘Neighbours at war’ to realise just how unlucky you can be. We definitely wouldn’t qualify for that superior quality reality TV show but our neighbour experiences of late have been nothing if not unexpected, dramatic and somewhat disturbing.
We live in one side of a split villa in Epsom. It’s a wealthy, reputable area. We thought it would be safe to assume that our neighbourhood is safe, quiet and reassuringly boring. We were wrong.
The people living in the other half of our villa seemed nice enough, a couple of bad tattoos, a passion for gardening, and not much else worth mentioning.
Then the police started visiting. In their confusion they often came to our door looking for the neighbours. We learnt that our neighbour was on curfew. We were non-plussed, firm believers in second chances and all that jazz.
Then the police visits became more frequent, always different cops, at all different times of the day and night, being woken up at 4am by policeman at the wrong door started to become a little more than frustrating.
The next thing we know the neighbours are getting into physical altercations with the cops, then one of them is officially on the run. Next come the police dogs, then the helicopters.
We were pretty relieved when they moved out and a new couple moved in. They were there for a day before kindly letting us know that the flat had failed methamphetamine testing and would have to undergo further testing and likely decontamination.
In the 1990s Auckland dealt with the leaky homes fiasco, now it’s not water damaging properties – it’s P. More than 20,000 Auckland homes could be affected my methamphetamine use and manufacturing. Our landlord is out at least $5000 just to cover the testing alone, not including possible costs of decontamination.
The law states that agents have to inform potential tenants about meth contamination if they are aware of it but what about all the cases where agents and property managers willingly turn a blind eye, happier not knowing what’s going on in their client’s houses. Some property managers seem to employ a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy when it comes to issues that could result in more cost and work for them.
As renters we’re used to the damp, the mould, no insulation, and all the little quirks of living in old houses no one wants to ‘waste’ money on bringing up to par.
Now people have one more thing to be concerned about when looking for a rental, is their future home not only cold, and crappy, is it dangerous?
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Elizabeth Davies is a 24 year-old graduate of the Auckland University of Technology post graduate journalism course. She lives with her partner in Epsom and spends her free time refurbishing vintage furniture and attempting to bake while fighting a daily battle against her bank balance. She writes a weekly article for interest.co.nz on money matters and financial struggles from a young person's perspective.
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