Community social housing provider Accessible Properties says it will follow Housing New Zealand in changing its meth standards.

But a lawyer says private providers will continue to act more harshly than the publicly-owned Housing New Zealand.

Accessible Properties, a subsidiary of intellectual disability services provider IHC, owns most of the social housing in Tauranga, after being sold it by Housing New Zealand in 2016.

In late 2017 the provider threw Timothy Dalton-Edwards out of his home after a positive meth reading on a test he asked for himself.

Last week a Government report made clear that HNZ and many other landlords had been testing to a standard that was far too low, resulting in tens of millions of dollars in wasted testing and clean up and hundreds of tenants needlessly moved on or evicted from properties.

The Chief Science Advisor's (CSA) report showed there was no evidence of anyone ever getting sick from a house or space where meth had only been smoked, not produced. For years HNZ had used a Ministry of Health guideline meant as a standard to clean up properties where meth had been produced as a trigger for cleaning when only use was suspected.

HNZ immediately raised its trigger to 15μg per 100cm2, in line with the report's recommendations - and said they would only test when heavy use or production was suspected.

Accessible Properties chief executive Greg Orchard says they would also raise their standard.

"We aim to utilise the best advice and evidence available when undertaking our work.

"The CSA's report is now the best advice we have and we will use the findings and recommendation to revise our policies and practice including assessing when we will undertake future testing. The CSA's report recommends testing where a meth lab or very heavy use is suspected."

But tenant and mother Natachia Millan says the news was too little too late.

She told Stuff last week she had received a 90-day termination notice from her property after a positive meth reading.

Accessible Properties had taken Millan to the Tenancy Tribunal over rent arrears and the issue of whether or not they could do a follow up test after finding a cumulative methamphetamine reading of 140ug, but failed to terminate the tenancy.

It's not clear if any individual spot reading was over the new 15ug standard and Accessible Properties refused to comment on the individual case.

Natachia says some boarders had possibly smoked meth on her property but she had not and there was no suspicion of production.

"I just feel like I've been picked on like the rest of them. They just want us out of the neighbourhood.

"We've had no health problems at all."

Unlike a regular eviction, a 90-day termination of a tenancy does not require a cause - as long as landlords aren't discriminating they can end a tenancy for any reason, if they give 90 days notice.

Lawyer Michael Sharp, who represented Natachia at the Tribunal and another Accessible Properties tenant all the way to the High Court, says cases like Millan's showed the wide-open legal loophole of the 90-day notice.

"They're acting perfectly legally. New Zealand's unlike other countries in that our social housing providers don't have to have any reason to terminate tenants."

Accessible Properties have been asked to comment on their wider use of 90-day evictions.

Sharp lost a High Court case earlier this year against Accessible Properties over another 90-day eviction linked to a meth test.

His client contended the test itself was illegal and that ending her tenancy for a result that wasn't dangerous would be "harsh or unconscionable" - even if done with a 90-day notice.

The judge did not make a specific finding over whether or not the methamphetamine testing was illegal but said he had to he would say non-invasive meth testing could be included as part of general property inspections.

Sharp says while the 90-day portion of the law existed landlords would continue to have too much over tenants - particularly vulnerable social housing tenants.

"Most countries have got protections for social housing tenants security of tenure. That is going to be an issue not just for methamphetamine but for anything."

He says that while HNZ could at least be reined in by the Minister, private social housing providers only had to fulfil their contracts with the Ministry of Social Development.

-Stuff/Henry Cooke.