Re: Airbnb laws fail as partygoers riot and rob

@proxaccess said:
Unlike in NSW, where apartment owners can pass by-laws to prevent apartments being let commercially on a short-term basis … Not true, nothing in NSW can be done to prevent short-term letting, especially not a building by-laws since nothing in the legislation allows owners corporations to prevent it … Not sure why you wrote that.  

I wrote it because it’s true and it was true even before the government announced the new legislation that will come in next year. 

Hundreds of apartment buildings in NSW have by-laws restricting short-term holiday lets.  Their legal right to have them was enshrined in a decision by the Privy Council, the highest court in the British Commonwealth, and the West Australian Court of Appeal.

Now, while having no direct bearing on NSW law, these decisions would certainly be considered as significant in any court hearing

The fact that one badly written by-law in one building was overturned by one NCAT Member is of no significance whatsoever (except to warn you to write your by-laws more circumspectly). NCAT decisions at that level don’t even create precedents for NCAT. But it is significant is that Airbnb and their mates in the NSW government clung on to that one tiny decision as if it was holy writ – a sign of how flimsy their case really was.

So, thus far, no one has successfully challenged a properly written short-term letting by-law in a proper court in NSW.  One has been challenged at the highest level in WA and the challenge failed.  This is how the law – even strata law – works. Laws are passed and they are tested in court. 

Lawyers and strata managers are still working out the best form of words for a by-law for when the new strata laws come in next year, but in the meantime, active owners corps who have valid by-laws are shutting down Airbnb and other STHL operations in their blocks.

So, again, to answer your question about why I wrote it, it was to put the facts out there and counter the constant propaganda stream from those entities that are happy to disrupt and destroy  our communities for their own profits, regardless of the consequences to the majority of people who thought they were buying a home, not a hotel.