Connie Cicchini’s urgent warning: ‘My house was demolished because of meth’

A landlord’s worst nightmare has come true after tenants left her house in a toxic and unlivable wreckage.

Connie Cicchini has had to demolish her Zillmere rental property due to meth use, an expert report has recommended that Connie get her house demolished because there was no guarantee meth would not reappear. Picture David Clark

Dozens of homes around the country are having to be demolished due to methamphetamine contamination including a recent spate in Adelaide’s south, experts and cleaning services say, as one landlord reveals the devastating effect it has had on her life.

Flinders University public health expert Dr Jackie Wright, who has been investigating ice contamination for more than a decade, says ice manufacturing or heavy use of the drug in a home can lead to it penetrating walls and ceilings.

Dr Wright said she was aware of a large number of homes that have had to be demolished recently in South Australia, New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland due to meth contamination, after remediation efforts failed.

Connie Cicchini's rental in Brisbane before it was demolished.

Queensland woman Connie Cicchini said meth contamination has had a dire impact on her life since she discovered tenants had been smoking meth in her retirement nest egg investment property in 2021.

Ms Cicchini believed that all she needed to do was get her inner-northern Brisbane property cleaned, but the contamination kept returning.

The Advertiser sighted expert reports that revealed the contamination kept on coming back because the meth had gone into the house’s cavities including ceilings, floorboards, window frames, architraves and gyprock walls.

Ms Cicchini had been letting the property while living with and caring for her ailing father.

After his death in February 2023, she had intended to move into the investment property, only to find the methamphetamine contamination had recurred.

She could not in good conscience re-let the property and after the third cleaning attempt organised by her insurer NRMA found the contamination had recurred – after a three-year dispute that was eventually decided by the Australian Financial Complaints Authority – the insurer during the dispute resolution process eventually agreed to pay the property’s full insured value.

Connie Cicchini says people need to be more vigilant when buying or leasing properties. Picture: David Clark

NRMA said Ms Cicchini’s situation of needing to demolish a home was rare, and in her case was also due to unapproved building works undertaken by the tenants.

Michelle Williams, director of Lillium Cleaning, said she was aware of a number of homes in Adelaide’s southern suburbs that have recently been completely demolished after meth was discovered inside after a sale or tenancy, but warned against “fearmongering”.

“In those (Adelaide) cases it was more of a case that it was cheaper to demolish them than to do the remediation,” she said.

Despite the very real problem of meth contamination, she warned of some unscrupulous remediation services, as well as builders, exaggerating the levels or effects of meth contamination, which may lead people or insurers “to pay thousands of dollars unnecessarily”.

Dr Jackie Wright agreed that sometimes “dodgy companies oversold the problem”. Picture Craig Hughes

Dr Jackie Wright, Flinders University public health scientist, is aware of a number of properties that have had to be demolished after meth contamination was found. Picture: Craig Hughes

Dr Wright agreed that sometimes “dodgy companies oversold the problem”.

“But other times we have the opposite problem where it hasn't been tested properly and the meth contamination levels are higher than they appeared,” she said, adding that could lead to long-term problems.

Dr Wright called for enforceable national standards for drug lab and meth contamination remediation to ensure that “the same people who do the testing need to be different to the company that does the remediation”.

She said state governments should act to ensure that meth testing was part of any pre-purchase “buyer beware” inspection.

At least 275,000 Australians smoke methamphetamine each year.

Originally published as Connie Cicchini’s urgent warning: ‘My house was demolished because of meth’