Re: “Strata Parasite” flouting the law and getting away with it

Thank you for your response. It is against our bylaws. The minimum rental period is 3 months. This was voted on and approved and is clearly stated in our by-laws. We have tried to enforce this but have been unsuccessful because the owner just ignores the by-laws.

 We actually believe that council is intimidated by this man and his family as we all are. He has keyed all of our cars, sends hundreds of emails a week complaining or commenting on anything and everything just to be difficult, and has physically abused the president of our Owners Corp. Owners have moved from the building because they can’t put up with him anymore.

This family have produced bogus leases in the past that say that someone is renting for 3 months. We clearly see the holiday renters checking in and out and it corresponds with the calendars on AirBnB. 

It is so difficult to prove any of this. We started to ask all of the tenants arriving to his apartments a few questions when they checked in such as how long are you here? Where did you find the listing? Have you been given a list of the building bylaws like how to use the barbecue, laundry etc? When we tried this, the owner sent a threatening letter saying that it was harassment and that they would take action if this continued. We need this information to try to get council to take any action as they need ‘proof’.

Ironically, the rental schedules are clearly there for all to see on the booking calendars on AirBnB, however council says that the rental availability calendar is not enough proof as it might not be accurate. We suspect that someone in council is on-side with the tenant and is burying everything. (One council member uses AirBnB to rent a floor in his home for holiday let and is friendly with the family.) We don’t have an issue with short term leasing in people’s homes if that is what they choose to do and it is legal. In this case, renting short term in our very expensive building is against both council and strata laws and it just keeps going on without any consequences. It isn’t right that we bought into this building as our home and we are living in a holiday hotel!

Regardless of the strata laws against it, it is clearly against the council laws and that should be enough for council to take action. How do we enforce this and force council to do something??? Sorry for the very lengthy rant but we are all very over it and don’t know what to do.