Tonight ` Got any drugs on you? No. Homeowners are being charged thousands to clean up contaminated homes. Mercury, heavy metals, iodine, other things like that. The truth is the legacy of NZ's meth epidemic is everywhere. I wonder what would happen if we tested these for methamphetamine. Plus ` Canopy over the top of the deck yet to be installed. Home groans. We've been too trusting. The builder is gone. Their retirement funds are gone. And the Master Build Guarantee is no good either. Shock, really. Yeah. What do we do now? And ` We're going to blow some fibre. We have the Luddite's guide to cyberspace. That amount of glass produces 300km of fibre optic cable. No. The way` Wait. We need to stop and think about that. Copyright Able 2016 Welcome to the show. We've had a huge reaction to last week's P special. Yes, the Minister of Building, Nick Smith, has called for tighter rules to control the meth detection business. We feel paranoia is driving a massive clean-up industry, and the panic button's been pushed prematurely, because, as Garth discovered, the legacy of NZ's P epidemic is everywhere. Got any drugs on you? No. 'Pretty cheeky question.' I've got some` maybe some aspirin or something. No, I don't, actually. No, nothing. The most recent figures we have suggest I'd need to stop another 110 NZers to find one who's actually used methamphetamine. But how much is out there? And how much poses a risk? How much would there have to be for it to worry you? I don't know! (LAUGHS) If it was visible, like, a visible amount. I don't really know what a substantial amount of meth is. ALL LAUGH That's probably something your mum and dad are really happy to hear right now, eh. This is what mums and dads are more likely to be worried about right now ` P contamination and the disturbing news that some people are paying thousands for clean-ups where there may be no real risk to health from trace levels of methamphetamine. When you start looking at trace level, at forensic level, for a lot of chemical residues, you start finding them, because we have such good analytical instrumentation these days that we can track things around the environment that you wouldn't know were moving around the environment previously. Meth detection companies know that. They also know there's no current guidance where P has been smoked in a house. So they're using the only thing they have ` much stricter guidance for cleaning up a lab. I think it may need to be revisited, though, mainly because as more information is becoming available, we're starting to understand that there probably is a background concentration of methamphetamine in the community in various properties, just from the fact that people have been smoking it. And it's not dissimilar to a background concentration of drug residues that show up on banknotes. So if you follow the money, you find the story. These fives and 20s are in heavy circulation ` they pass through a lot of pairs of hands. You've got to wonder what some of those hands might be up to. We've come to a row of shops in West Auckland you'd find just about anywhere in a town or city. One, two, three... 'We've made change and collected 20 notes.' Don't know if I should lick my fingers, actually. I wonder what would happen if we tested these for methamphetamine. We're sending them to the same lab many meth detection companies use. It's important to note this is an accredited lab, the one part of the whole business of P contamination testing that's held up to a strict standard. It can only test what it's given. It can't control what sort of job the samplers do. And it can't control how those results are interpreted. If someone said, 'You might have tiny traces of meth on you,'... Oh, yeah. Yeah, that would worry me for sure, yeah. Which is a lot like the situation facing homeowners and tenants confronted by a positive test result with no independent guidance on what to make of the numbers being thrown at them. Back at the lab, the test is done. And guess what? Each of our samples has returned a positive test for methamphetamine. Ugh. (LAUGHS) Is that right? Wow. That's pretty scary. I'm not happy about it. I don't wanna be in contact with that. Let's think about what this means. The Ministry of Health says in a former P lab, you should clean anything that tests over 0.5 micrograms per 100cm2 of wall. Three of our four samples exceed that. The numbers range from 0.4 to 0.8 micrograms ` that was on bundles of five notes tested together. It's cheaper, and it's what a lot of initial meth tests do. We then tested five individual notes. Every single note tested positive for P. Trace amounts, but if the sample had come from a wall in a house, hearts might already be sinking, because people have spent thousands ripping out walls for less. I'd say people are justifiably concerned because of the way that guidelines are commonly interpreted or misinterpreted. This is the first time anyone has tested our banknotes for P. The results seem alarming, but they're consistent with results overseas. The finding hasn't caused a health crisis or health alarm. It hasn't caused people to say we should sterilise notes between users. < Would it worry you if you had, like, forensic-level traces of something on you? I mean, if it was making me unhealthy, then yeah, but if it's not affecting me, then no. That's a sense of proportion you may sometimes struggle to find in the meth detection business. Let's be clear ` we're not saying you should be keeping your money in plastic bags now. Before you part with it for a meth decontamination, think twice about the advice. Because there may be more P in your pocket than there is on your walls. That is absolutely astonishing. (CHUCKLES) Outrageous. We've gotta get some updated guidelines on this stuff so that we're all better informed. Exactly. Well, right, time, now, to welcome the return of our much-loved 'Dumb Charges' segment. We asked you for the dumbest fee you've been charged, and the level of dumbness was fairly astonishing. Warwick from Hamilton kicks it off with a doozy. To kick things off ` bank charges. WARWICK: I sold my car for $15,250 cash. Took the money to the post shop to pay into my Kiwi account. All good, no problem ` so far. At the end of that month, there was a $38 surcharge on my account. I phoned Kiwibank to find out what the surcharge was for and was told this was because I had paid more than the $15,000 in any one month. And all the banks do it, don't they? So I just think that's a dumb charge. What?! A charge for depositing too much money? That can't be right, can it? We put it to Kiwibank, and this is what they told us. The fee Warwick got charged was a cash handling fee. It happens when a customer deposits or withdraws cash exceeding $15,000 within a calendar month. The fee covers the process of handling the cash and disposal of excess cash at the branch, which is a potential security risk. Kiwibank says it probably would have been helpful for the staff to tell Warwick at the counter, but that wouldn't have stopped them charging it. So an extra fee for handling cash? Isn't that kind of a bank's core business? Shouldn't that really be covered in the fees we already pay? Seems a little bit dumb to me. Look, Pippa, I can see the justification for that fee. My beef is they should have told the guy they were gonna ping him for it. Uh, Kiwibank say that's gonna put too much onus on the tellers to make that sort of judgement. Look, you're gonna charge a fee ` tell us you're gonna charge a fee. That's my` my feeling. Fair enough, yes. Coming up ` we head south, where southern hospitality has been abused by a Registered Master Builder. It's a $700,000 nightmare. There's a problem with the waterproofing which has been installed. A couple's retirement dream is scuttled by a Registered Master Builder. We've been too trusting. We feel like we've been let down. And ` DIAL-UP TONE WHINES Do you feel lost in cyberspace? So how do you know your copper from your fibre? Or whether you're naked or not? Have no fear ` Brodie is here. Wait. We need to stop and think about that. Welcome back. We return with a $700,000 nightmare. Yes, southern hospitality has been sorely tested by a Registered Master Builder who's scuttled an elderly couple's retirement dream and left them with a leaky, unfinished mess. And just when the couple thought it couldn't get worse, they made a claim against their Master Build guarantee. Here's Hannah. Craftsmanship. Care. Pride. There's a lot missing on this job. We were supposed to get a tarmac finish. Dean Herbert is preparing a dossier of bad news. Canopy over the top of the deck yet to be installed, and treatment to the deck. Dean's a quantity surveyor. His job is to figure out what a building project should cost, right down to the nuts and bolts. On this wall here, there's dampness coming into the block walls. There's a problem with the waterproofing which has been installed, and it's causing a bit of ponding to the floor. At the moment, it's a mess, isn't it? It is, yes. It is a bit of a mess. I, you know` Not a nice situation to be in. This mess has soaked up all of Rod and Margaret McKay's retirement fund. We've been too trusting. Yeah. We feel like we've been let down. And their boy isn't happy. It's meant to be an exciting time of their life where they retire and have no stress, and it's probably been the most stressful time of their lives. Three years ago, Rod and Margaret made a huge decision to leave the family farm. I knew going into town was going to be different, but I can still run out to the farm, and I do go out there quite often and help. I think I'm helping. They fell in love with this view from a section in nearby Gore, owned by local Registered Master Builder Ewen Price. He offered to build their house ` this house. I suppose everyone likes the thought of a new house. Rod found lots in common with his new builder. We used to go round there, and instead of talking building, we used to reminisce about our old days ` much to Margaret's disgust, at times. And so I thought we'd found a new friend. Their new friend costed the build out at $448,000. That gave them 170m2 including garage and basement. Margaret and Roddy wanted an extra couple of rooms down under the house, and that was an extra $100,000 ` well, fair enough. But then the price just kept going up... and up... and up. Sometimes, I wonder if the invoices were not... detailed enough. The build itself was moving very very slowly. We'd come up from the farm and come here, and there'd be very little done. We'd come back a week later, and there was still nothing done. Then work stopped completely. Rod visited one of the subbies ` the electrician ` to ask why. And I realised, then, that they hadn't been paid, and this is why everything was taking so long. Turned out the plumber had also not been paid, but the builder had ` over $700,000 ` $200,000 more than the agreed quote. $200,000 over what you'd agreed to is a lot of money. We had to get the house done. We had to get it finished. If we're gonna have to sell it, it has to be finished. Their life savings gone. They just were very trusting. Like, having no building experience, I think you have to be. You have to put your trust in your builder. In August last year, they asked farm adviser and mediator Alistair Gibson to help set up a meeting with the builder. You know, he would tell you, he'd look you straight in the eye that he was going to complete that job. He had been given many opportunities to get it done and didn't. The McKays say their builder promised to finish all the work at no further cost. By October last year, the house was pretty much as you see it now. The McKays needed to get off the farm so that their son Paul could take over, so when their builder said they could move into the house, they did. It was on the builder's advice and encouragement. Soon after they'd moved in, though, the McKays heard that their builder had gone bust. That came as a bit of a shock. Among the mess the builder had left was one ray of hope ` he'd organised a Master Build Guarantee. He had said it would be good to... get it. It would... protect us. But their claim to Master Build was rejected, because by moving into the house before it was finished, they'd effectively lost their cover. But hang on... You can't have somebody sell you something who is your representative and then refuse` and` and take his advice and then refuse the policy at the end of that. The claim was also declined because the McKays made some payments to their builder without permission from Master Build Services. If Mr Price sent in an invoice, um, the McKays themselves paid it very quickly, because they knew that he was an accredited Master Build` Master Builder, so he must have credibility. So to then turn around and say, 'Well, you shouldn't have paid him when he asked to be paid,' < what's your take on that? Utter bull<BLEEP>. Time, now, to catch up with Dean. He reckons the finished house and landscaping should've cost $680,000. The McKays have already spent over $700,000. How much more will it cost? The cost to get everything complete, um, would approximately be around $70,000. Round about the ballpark of what we thought it was gonna` we've been informed it's gonna cost. Um, so we're` I'm quite relieved. Relieved, but still $70,000 out of pocket ` and now out of options. Really, we've got a house that is not compliant, not finished. The money is paid, and all of a sudden, our insurance guarantee's not valid. The only option we have is Master Building. If they don't come to the party, well, I don't know what will happen. We've made several unsuccessful attempts to contact the builder. His company, Price Brothers Builders Ltd, went into liquidation in November last year, owing more than $300,000 to creditors. So the McKays' only realistic hope was their guarantee ` then Master Build tells the McKays their own actions have invalidated their claim. We've come across this issue plenty of times before, and we ask ` is the guarantee fair? Can a layperson be expected to understand it and make it work for them? So we asked a lawyer who's had a lot of dealings with Master Build guarantees. Master Builder advertise their guarantee as allowing a homeowner to sleep easy. Um, but in my view, in this case, the homeowner suffered a nightmare. But Master Builder hasn't done anything about it. Rohan says because the McKays placed all their trust in the builder, they weren't even aware of what the exclusions were. They effectively moved into the home oblivious to the consequences of that under the guarantee, um, and deprived themselves of rights. You've had a look at the guarantee. What did you make of it? Well, this document is highly complex, and in my view, it's very unlikely that the ordinary Kiwi is going to understand how it works and what its effects are. In my view, it's not` it's not written for the layman. It's written for the benefit of Master Build when a claim is made, and Master Build can rely on its provisions to either deny the claim or to limit the claim. How does this fail as a contract? This is a very one-sided contract. You're not likely to, um, really understand what you're dealing with at the time, and certainly, later, when a dispute arises, like in this case, and you have to rely on the contract, well, then you realise, well, it's not` it's not quite what I expected. It's not` I've paid money for something which isn't protecting me. And Rohan says Master Build also has obligations under the Consumer Guarantees Act. Their guarantee has to be fit for purpose, and as a result of all the exclusions in it and all the things that are not covered and all the onerous requirements on the homeowner, um, how can you say it's fit for purpose? What do you think Master Build Services should do here? Master Build actually says on their guarantee document that the purpose of this guarantee is so you have a third party standing behind the builder's obligations. Master Build should do the right thing and come to the party. We've gone back to Master Build Services to argue they have discretion over whether to apply these exclusions. In other words, wriggle room. Yes. They say there's been a communication breakdown between them, the McKays and their lawyer. Master Build say they are willing to undertake a review of the McKays' claim to see if a more satisfactory solution can be found. That may take a couple of weeks, but at least both parties are talking. But this is far from the first complaint we've had against Master Builders and their guarantee. There have been plenty over the years. Yes, so in a break from tradition, we don't want to hear from people having problems with Master Builders. We want to hear from anyone ` yes, anyone ` who has successfully made a claim on the Master Build Guarantee and actually received a payout. We'd love to hear from you. Coming up, the Luddite's guide to broadband. PHONE RINGS Remember the good old days? But, boy, haven't things changed? We unravel the mysteries of the net. So how do you know your copper from your fibre? Or whether you're naked or not? It's the Luddite's guide to cyberspace. And that amount of glass produces 300km` Wait. We need to stop and think about that. 1 Welcome back. Life and the internet ` almost impossible to separate the two now. We watch TV through the internet ` at least, urban types do. We book holidays through the internet, talk to our loved ones through the internet. In fact, there's not much you can't do through the internet. So picking the right broadband plan is really important. But how do you cut through the jargon? Here's Brodie. PHONE RINGS Ah, remember the good old days, when we had to communicate like this? PHONE RINGS Hey, and then we got all flash and got the interweb, and it was all like this. DIAL-UP TONE WHINES And we waited and waited and waited for a single page to download. Gosh, those were the days. But, boy, haven't things changed? The internet is heaps faster. And your options for broadband these days are pretty solid. NZers are hooked on using the internet, and we're using ever more. Demand for internet is exploding. And that's because there's so many great things that you can do online. So how do you know your copper from your fibre? Your 80 gig data versus unlimited? Your 30 meg versus 100 meg? Or whether you're naked or not? Well, I'm gonna break it down for ya ` starting with fibre. You see, ultra-fast broadband fibre is currently being laid, and come 2019, will be available to 75% of NZ. Chorus is in charge of the project, and this guy knows his stuff. This is fibre. Yes. Yep. Fibre-optic cable. This is actually what we put into your house. It's high-friction and very flexible. Actually, it's pretty amazing, and you'll never guess what it's made from ` glass. That amount of glass produces 300km... of fibre-optic cable. No. Absolutely. Now, the way` the way` Wait a minute, wait. We need to stop and think about that. So that... Mm-hm. ...stretches out to 300km... 300km. ...of fibre. Fibre-optic cable. 'The fibre is literally blown down a tube, like so.' I know exactly what I'm doing. Oh. < Gonna blow some fibre. CHUCKLES: Blow some fibre. 'And into your house just like that.' It's quite` It's quite straightforward. Yo! That's it! Oh wow! This is where it comes out into the home. Oh my goodness! You've just successfully blown fibre to the home. That's amazing. But hey, I know not everyone watching this will have ultra-fast broadband yet ` or you might not even be getting it. So you will either have ADSL or VDSL. So, both of those are copper broadband technologies. You know, we've had copper broadband for 20 years, so it's served us really well. It's still got legs in it. The VDSL, in particular, is called 'very fast', um, broadband. And folks, there's a very easy way to see what you've currently got and what you could actually be missing out on. You go to chorus.co.nz and click on 'Check your broadband'. Type in your address, and it will tell you whether you are on copper or fibre and whether your internet is as fast as it could be. Which brings me to my next point ` speed. What's the difference between 30 meg and 100 meg? And how do you know what you should be on? We looked at my house to see what I've got. You've got 30-meg fibre. What does that mean? Well, 30 meg's the slowest fibre around. (CHUCKLES) And, like, it's fine, if you don't` you know, if you're living alone or you don't have that many people in your house, and you don't use the internet that much, it's perfectly fine. Right. Look, I've got a wife and three kids. We're heavy users. We have a 200-meg fibre connection. Our flat uses 30-meg, and that's absolutely fine for us, but our experts say that if you're downloading content, you know, watching your Netflix on your telly, then you might wanna think about 100-meg. And remember that Chorus website? Well, it also tells you what your current speed is and what you could get. Decide you wanna up your megs? Easy ` just ring your provider. So, what about data? How do you know how much data you need? The best thing you can do, if you can afford it, is go for an unlimited plan. Then you don't have to worry about what the kids are getting up to over the school holidays, then you don't have to worry about getting towards the tail end of the month and running out of data. Unlimited is the way to go in my opinion. Now, you might decide that you actually don't need unlimited data, but internet providers have 80-gig or 60-gig. You guys just have to decide how much internet you're using. And finally ` do you need a landline? Or could you go without and roll with naked broadband? I mean, look, there are plenty of households out there that think that these days, the only time the phone rings is either the in-laws or telemarketers. < (LAUGHS) Yes. I try to avoid both of those people. BOTH LAUGH A home phone might be redundant if you've got plenty of minutes on your mobile phone plan. Look, I hope that's been helpful, cos I tell you what ` now is the best time to start hustling for a good broadband deal. There are over 90 ISPs available in NZ. That's people` What? Internet service providers that you can buy internet from. 90 in NZ? 90 in NZ. That's quite a lot. There'll be one out there that's got a deal for you, and you might be excited with what you find. We get a lot of complaints about broadband and telcos, but you heard the man ` 90 ISPs ` internet service providers ` in NZ, so if your contract allows it, walk away and find a better one. But check what they can give you before you do. Exactly. Well, that is the show for tonight, but we will be on Facebook for the next half hour to answer your questions. As we always say, our programme is all about your problems, your thoughts. We do love to hear from you. We're on Facebook. Email us... Write to us... And coming up next week ` We are living in a world of waste. Yeah, it's really really bad. Food waste is costing NZ $872 million a year. We're throwing out over 20 million loaves of bread per year. What culinary delights are lurking in your bin? This is just a manky old banana peel, so... Yeah, and to most NZers, this is waste. I mean, it is actually edible. A rubbish bin audit could save you hundreds. Up to half of all the food which is grown doesn't reach a human's stomach. It's fine dining like you've never seen before. Just eat it. Give peelings a chance. Give them a go. That's next week. Goodnight.