When the Police came banging on the door it looked bad, and it was bad.

Certainly not 'the positive experience” the Pond family from Mapua on the western shores of Tasman Bay had come seeking when they moved to Tauranga.

'The policeman highly recommended we get our house tested for meth,” says Craig Pond.

The Ponds are a Christian family and had trekked nearly 800km up the country looking for a Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland congregation to join. 'You know what?” says Craig. 'The whole P thing, we were completely ignorant.”

And when they tried to escape one toxic rental, they very nearly ended up in another.

'I keep telling my wife Lauren not to worry, that it will make us stronger.” Or it would break them because they're now pondering going home, giving up on Tauranga.

Their pilgrimage to find a church to worship in first took the Pond family – Mum, Dad and four kids under the age of seven – to Gisborne. 'But our street never slept, never stopped partying and there was meth and there was violence.”

The pilgrimage continued to Tauranga. And on TradeMe this nice family found a nice house on a nice street in a nice suburb. '[It cost] $500 a week but we had to see off a whole bunch of applicants.” So they put up six months' rent – or $15,000 – in advance to secure the property. Then their troubles began.

'We were still unpacking boxes a couple of days later when the Police banged on the door. They were looking for previous tenants.”

The policeman offered them advice based on his knowledge of the tenants and the house.

'He told us to get the house tested for meth contamination.” It seems their ‘nice' rental had a history. 'All of the neighbours were having nightmares about what was going on at our place. The rooms had been sublet and it was like a drug supermarket,” says Craig.

They had the house tested. Two tests, two different companies, both results were positive. Their rental home was toxic.

'It was a private rental. We dealt directly with the landlords and there was absolutely no mention of P contamination. No, no,” says Craig.

'And when we advised the landlords about it, they insisted they had no prior knowledge of drug dealing or drug use at their rental home. They were claiming complete ignorance.”

The Weekend Sun took the Pond's problem to property management expert Dan Lusby of Tauranga Rentals. 'The Residential Tenancy Act 1986 says landlords must provide healthy houses. If it's contaminated then it is not healthy. And landlords can be dragged over the coals for it.”

And ignorance is not a defence, says Dan. If there is so much as an inkling of contamination then a property should be tested.

'Now we're trying to find another home,” says Craig. 'But everyone thinks our furniture is contaminated and they're treating us like lepers.”

When he did find another rental, Craig says the agent put pressure on him. 'He told me to sign, smartly, because there was a whole lot of other people ready to sign if I didn't.”

Craig wanted the house tested but the agent insisted there was nothing to worry about. He was told there had only been two families in the property in the four years the company had managed it. 'On that basis I signed.” But again, unwisely.

'By chance we ran into the current tenants and they came straight out with it. ‘Don't move in' they warned us. ‘We have been sick the whole time we have lived here. The kids keep getting rashes and we have be going to the doctors over and over.'”

A neighbour also claimed there had been a succession of tenants and they'd all left through sickness.

'I went back to the agent and explained our suspicions the house was contaminated and that the history of the house didn't align with his story and that we couldn't possibly move in.”

They had given notice to one landlord, signed with another and still didn't have a home. 'Just a mess, an absolute mess. And they they're not going to refund the $677 letting fee we paid.” They looked at another property this week – two bedroomed, at $450 a week. Not ideal for a family of six. A problem is rapidly becoming a crisis for the Pond family.

A fortnight ago the first landlords gave the Pond family six weeks' notice, of which there is just one month to run. 'If we can't find a home then it would be a holiday park or we just head home to the South Island where, at least, people know us.”

The family has been refunded their $15,000 less two weeks' rent and two weeks' bond. There's a dispute over whether the Ponds should now be paying to live in the contaminated house and that's headed for the Tenancy tribunal.

And Craig, the God-faring self-employed electrician who moved lock, stock, barrel and business to Tauranga for the better life, wants people to understand what can happen to tenants. Their story, they say, is a wake-up call for tenants.

'Your resources can get exhausted rapidly if you run into our situation. And if you didn't have the means, you could easily be on the street. It's been a bit of a challenge.”

Dan says it underscores the need for tenants to deal with a professional letting company. 'Tenants can ask for a drug test to be done and if the landlord baulks then the tenant could be forgiven for thinking there was something to hide.”

Meanwhile, Craig says his family continues to be 'strengthened” by it's Tauranga housing experience.