I’m going to jump in here because there is a sense of crowing smugness about some of these posts celebrating the failure of Melbourne City Council’s Supreme Court appeal against the victory by party flat short-term letters. Enjoy it while it lasts.
It’s an interpretation of the law, not a definition of right and wrong and eventually, as it always is, the law will be brought into line with public opinion and society’s values. It’s just a matter of time.
By the way, I apologise to all the genuinely responsible, considerate and caring landlords of holiday lets, who take the time and trouble to ensure their tenants have no negative impact on your neighbours.
But the party-flat scumbags are using you as a human shield to protect their own selfish interests. You should be on our side, not theirs, or you could find you go down the same gurgler as they inevitably will.
Meanwhile please don’t give us your BS about voluntary codes of conduct and how licences to occupy are more effective control on bad tenants than leases. They nothing more or less than a sop to politicians and legal loopholes to avoid having to abide by the same laws as other landlords.
If that’s the best you can come up with, it shows the profound dishonesty that is the bedrock of this grubby little business.
If you don’t actually live in the building, please tell us what mechanism you use to remove party animals who are destroying the legal right to peace and quiet that your neighbours are supposed to enjoy. And I mean when it’s happening – not two weeks later when they are long gone!
Long-term residents have to stick around and face the consequences of their actions. Meanwhile, how do we get in touch with YOU (or your mealymouthed agents) at 2 am on a Sunday morning when your tenants are singing Cold Chisel’s greatest hits on your balcony or in our swimming pool, and threatening anyone who dares to utter a reasonable request to keep the noise down.
Call the police? Maybe they’ll come if they aren’t too busy scraping drunk drivers off the road or pursuing real criminals. But if that’s your answer, you are just as much parasites on the law enforcement services as you are on your strata neigbours.
So what are your sanctions against your party animal tenants? Oh, you won’t let your flat to Bozo ever again? But Numpty, Johnno and Tubby can each have a go at putting their name on the lease – sorry, licence to occupy – so that’s going to be really effective, isn’t it.
And it’s too late for the people who’ve suffered yet another weekend of disruption in their homes.
It may be different if you actually live in the property where you are letting out homes like hotel rooms. But if you don’t, and if you or your agents don’t even meet the people who are renting your property, in my humble opinion you are an irresponsible, selfish, greedy grub.
All over Australia right now, strata residents – tenants and owners – who are afflicted by the scourge of short-term lets are wondering what Christmas will bring. It might be a nice family looking for a quiet time by the beach – or it could be a bunch of yahoos who don’t give a damn about whose peace and quiet they disrupt because by the time any complaints filter back to the landlords, they’ll be long gone.
You can’t control that and neither can your neighbours and that’s why sooner or later the law will be changed and you will be out of your tawdry little business.
Part of the problem those who defend the short-term letting industry chose to think there isn’t a problem, despite all the evidence to the contrary.
And when they start crowing about a legal decision In Victoria, it’s not they they have been proved morally right – because we all know that’s never going to happen – but because they have been allowed to get away with it for a bit longer.
If there is such a “need” for short-term lets, let developers build serviced apartment blocks where they are allowed by council regulations and you can invest in them.
Oh, but wait, that would mean you would have to pay commercial council rates for things like garbage collection and insurance. It’s so much better to leech off apartment residents (even if it does mean making their lives a misery).
Regardless of the Victorian Supreme Court ruling (on a point of law) this opportunistic and parasitic invasion of people’s homes has to stop.
So enjoy your little victory while you can. But it won’t be long until the party’s over.