Hi fcd
You’re absolutely right but it’s not a ‘chink’, it’s a gap as wide and as obvious as the Sydney Harbour Heads. You must understand that our Residential Strata is controlled by those short-term letting. So to spell this out:
Our original Insurer declined to insure us when short-term letting was declared.
One must declare that you’ve been refused insurance when applying with another Insurer. Our current Insurer has never been advised. (Chink one.)
So our current Insurer agreed to provide insurance with a proviso, that the EC writes to every member of the OC telling them that they are in breach of the Development Consent and as such, MUST STOP short-term letting. This proviso has never been adhered to – the Committee Members are those steering the whole short-term letting operation.
The lure of what I call ‘big fast bucks’ is what those in control of our Strata are focussed on – their immediate, big returns – and by doing so they gamble with our Insurance and our financial ruin…remember, Strata Owners have unlimited liability. (kerChink two.)
The Insurer keeps renewing the policy but says the “Terms and Conditions remain unchanged”…and three years down the track the proviso still hasn’t been adhered to. (small Clang)
And a ‘condition’ of your Policy is that you must abide by all Laws governing your building, like the LOCAL PLANNING/DEVELOPMENT CONSENT. (bell starts ringing)
When an individual Owner contacts the Insurer, the Insurer pretty soon stops talking to you cause you’re not the Owners Corp, you’re one owner only and don’t represent the ‘body’. (louder…warning…Bell)
So we sit with all things crossed and hope that something doesn’t wipe us and our neighbours out, like one of those first night short-term guests who doesn’t know how the griller works, leaves the iron on, doesn’t know where the fire escape is…oh, the escape route is blocked cause no one who is suppose to be looking after the building checks the building as they’re too busy checking guests in and checking them out and cleaning apartments before the new guests arrive. (Alarm..fire…FIRE!)
Now what odds do we get that in the event of a major incident caused by something to do with an “Illegal Use of Premises” the Insurer say: “Ah, but you haven’t complied so why should be pay you hundreds of millions in compensation? And tell us, how much does everyone have in their bank/Super accounts and if we split this bill up according to your Units of Entitlement…”
I get the feeling that the Insurers are primed and will happily knock back a claim – as they will be entitled to do – the day this scenario arrives.
But there are people short-term letting who are willing to take this risk/ gamble every day.
Where to go? To the Council who issued the Development Consent. They have to be lent on like your life and financial security depends on it. The Council MUST take this matter to the Courts. There are examples where Councils in NSW have won. So: push your Council with all your might!