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There is no doubt that the law is catching up with Airbnb hosts in NSW, Qld and Vic.
In NSW, the Parliamentary Inquiry has reported, and we are awaiting the Government response. In Victoria, the Supreme Court has invalidated strata by-laws in a strata high rise which restricted short term lettings, and left it to the Council to deal with as a planning matter.In Queensland, the Government has given Local Councils powers to close down ‘party houses’ (and apartments).
What is clear is that in no State is there any appetite by the government to give power to the Strata Owners to restrict short term lettings using their Strata By-laws.
The purpose of this post is to harness the lateral thinking of flat-chatters to find ways other than Strata By-laws to regulate Airbnb apartments in their building.
If I may start, these are my suggestions –
1) If the whole apartment is being rented out, it is likely to be considered a serviced apartment for town planning purposes. Check the zoning to see if the owner needs council approval to use it as a serviced apartment.
2) Ask the owner to produce a certificate of currency for public liability insurance, in case of injury to the guest, because it may not be covered by the owners corporation insurance.
3) Find out if it is the owner or a tenant who is advertising the short-term letting. If it is the tenant, notify the owner because they may not know, and if they have not given their consent, can terminate the tenancy.
Over to you.
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The following is a extract from a press release from Greg Nash, chairman and CEO of the PICA Group:
In some cases the owners corporation can allow short-term stays. For example, if the zoning and the local environment plan (LEP) don’t prohibit it, then offering short-term stays can be possible with development consent, depending on the by-laws.
Owners corporations can allow short-term stays and can include specific requirements within the by-laws to minimise the potential risk. For example, they may demand a tenancy notice for each and every new guest, along with how long they will be staying. If owners don’t comply then the owners corporation can refuse to issue security keys, prevent guests from using the facilities and more.
Greg Nash said, “The bottom line is that an owners corporation cannot have something like Airbnb forced upon them. The person wanting to run the Airbnb must satisfy any number of legal requirements first and, even then, the owners corporation has a right to put a stop to it through the by-laws.
“If a person in a building is running an Airbnb illegally, many councils are happy to prosecute as they are empowered to enforce zoning and local environmental plan (LEP) requirements. Additionally, if the person is in breach of a by-law limiting occupancy, they can be subject to fines of $5,500 for the first offence and up to $11,000 for a second offence with the money going to the owners corporation, not the state.”
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