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Hello there,
We live in a small strata block of twelve units in the inner city of Sydney NSW. Last year one of the units was sold and now the new owners are renting out their unit on airbnb with a minimum two nights stay. in the last two months there have been maybe five different groups of guests, over the christmas period one of these guests caused a lot of havoc they threw a number of really loud parties, were rude to fellow residents and police intervention was required twice.
We would like to understand our rights and options as owner occupiers. Is it possible to stop the owner from renting out the unit like a hotel? is it possible to set some parameters for how they do this?
Your advice would be much appreciated.Thank you very much.
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Three things to check:
1. What do your by-laws say about short-term letting?
2. What is the council zoning for your building – e.g. is it permanent residential?
3. Do you have irrefutable evidence of what is going on and are other owners prepared to do what is necessary to stop it? Bear in mind, by the way, that some might think this is a great way to make money out of their units.
If short-term lets are banned by your by-laws, issue a Notice To Comply. Also, contact airBnb and tell them that this owner is in breach of THEIR rules and has misled them by ticking the box that says he has permission to let the flat. Ask them to take the listing down.
If council zoning forbids short term lets, contact them with a complaint and ask them to send a “cease and desist” letter to your neighbour.
If you have a majority of owners on side, pass a by-law to tighten up restrictions of short term lets and then pursue them with everything you’ve got.
Regardless of what agency they use, this short-term letting disease will only spread if you don’t snuff it out now, eventually your other owners will take the view “if you can’t beat them, join them”.
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Find out from your Strata insurance company if running a holiday let requires a premium to be paid for this to continue, if so the owner of the lot is fully liable for any insurance premium increase due to this activity.
@kiwipaul said:
Find out from your Strata insurance company if running a holiday let requires a premium to be paid for this to continue, if so the owner of the lot is fully liable for any insurance premium increase due to this activity.I can see the logic of this – nit them on the hop pocket nerve – but my fear would be that it would legitimise it.
I had friends recently who reneted a room in a two-bed flat in Darlinghurst, Sydney, for $200 a night. By the time they had been there three days, they had paid the host’s rent for the week. And insurance premium might not be enough to deter.
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Not necessarily applicable as a precedent in Australia, but the following report on the forum “Frequent Business Traveller” is of interest.
A New York City man was evicted form his apartment after a Manhattan Housing Court judge ruled against him after he listed the apartment on Airbnb.
Henry Ikezi of Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood was found guilty of “profiteering” after listing his apartment on Airbnb for $649 per night. Izeki had been paying $6,670 per month for the rent-stabilized apartment.
Izeki said that he had been living in the apartment with his family, only hosting tourists occasionally, although his landlord alleged that Izeki had been renting the apartment like a hotel. In New York, it is illegal to rent an entire home or apartment for fewer than 29 days.
In court, Izeki claimed that he could not remember whether or not he had charged anyone for a night’s stay, nor did he know whether he had slept at the apartment. The judge ordered Izeki to be out of the apartment by the end of the month.
The judge didn’t buy it. “Using a residential apartment as a hotel room and profiteering off of it is ground for eviction . . . as it undermines a purpose of the Rent Stabilization Code,’’ Stoller wrote in his 12-page ruling.
Here is a data trawling website for Airbnb listings in Sydney: https://insideairbnb.com/sydney/#
There are currently 9,700 listings for Sydney on Airbnb alone.
One host has 136 listings and another has 108, etc.
We could identify on websites 58 out of 163 apartments in our building being short-term let.
Airbnb move the location pins so that exact street placements are disguised however I hope this website – Inside Airbnb – helps.
Interfering with any other unit’s right to quiet enjoyment is the law I can see being broken. Body Corporates cannot create by-laws interfering with this right, as Jimmy suggests. Yes you can create the by-law, but it is only a bluff and not legal. Jimmy is bluffing you now, plus wasting your time. Only Councils can stop short term letting if they have a clause in their LEP that overrides the State Planning Act that allows it. Body Corporates do not have this power or right so why is this suggested over and over again over the years I have read this forum.
This is Jimmy’s personal bugbear and is not giving all the correct information for a fair 2 sided debate and the tone of the language is a bit extreme. Everything short term letters are “guilty” of, so are permanent letters and owners.
Nearly all my guests are retired grandparents visiting family close by. My neighbour told me that he thought the apartment was vacant permanently as he hears nothing (meanwhile he is blowing cigarette smoke into my window, also perfectly legal). The permanent tenants in the building have parties, start Harleys at 6am, leave rubbish everywhere that I clean up, because it is embarrassing for overseas visitors to see. My guests, mostly hail from England, bring plenty of money to spend in the local area. They make friends with my friendly neighbouring apartment.
Backpackers cannot afford to rent holiday apartments. The rental code states we can only rent to 2people per bedroom at one time, unlike permanent renters and owners that can do what they want.
If a short term tenant is noisy (never happened to me in 15 years!), it is the same remedy as a long term tenant, but at least you don’t have to put up with it forever. It has nothing to do with the owner but is a police matter. Call the police and stop whinging to the wrong people.
So I have broken no laws and have looked after the building when 10 of the 12 owners are interstate investors who refuse to spend a cent on maintenance. Yet somebody like Jimmy campaigns for years to take away my livelihood. I make about 15% extra from holiday rental, which allows me to stay home and look after my disabled child. I have not affected anybody in anyway ever, except to make them happy. Yet given the chance, Jimmy would try and take this off me because he believes we all need to be punished whether we are annoying or not. He wants to take away the opportunity that allows beautiful loving families to visit their loved ones, in my case it is usually for the birth of a baby. They cannot afford to travel to Australia and pay 3 or 4 weeks in a hotel room. Also there are not many hotels nearby anyway.
Yes I agree that there are some problems in some areas like everything in this world. If you get a bad plumbing job do you run down every plumber in Australia. Do not go after good people because of a few bad eggs or one bad personal experience. Look at issues as a one off or isolated case and solve that issue. Fix the real problem. Then get over it.
@friendlyhost said:
Interfering with any other unit’s right to quiet enjoyment is the law I can see being broken. Body Corporates cannot create by-laws interfering with this right, as Jimmy suggests. Yes you can create the by-law, but it is only a bluff and not legal. Jimmy is bluffing you now, plus wasting your time.And exactly how am I “bluffing”? Surely the right to peaceful enjoyment of your lot is totally different to your imagined right to let your unit to whomever you choose for however long you want. If your unit block is zoned residential only and you are making money from short-term lets then you are breaking the law. That’s not a bluff – it’ a fact … just ask the guy who’s been threatened with a $1.1 million fine in Leichhardt
Only Councils can stop short term letting if they have a clause in their LEP that overrides the State Planning Act that allows it. Body Corporates do not have this power or right so why is this suggested over and over again over the years I have read this forum.
Where in the “State Planning Act” does it say you are allowed to have short-term lets? Send me the reference and I will print it right here. In any case, ouncil planners, as VCAT has just confirmed, are the correct body to set residential or commercial zoning – not owners corporations, not you and certainly not me.
Owners Corporation can create by-laws to limit the use of their apartments to residential lets only, provided their building is zoned residential under the DA. This allows owners corps to take direct action rather than waiting for council to do something. Owners corps can’t create by-laws that supersede superior laws. But that would not be the case here. They are implementing the law – not circumventing it.
However, Owners Corps can’t create by-laws to prevent short term lets if their strata scheme is not zoned residential only. I don’t think I have ever said anything contrary to that.
This is Jimmy’s personal bugbear and is not giving all the correct information for a fair 2 sided debate and the tone of the language is a bit extreme. Everything short term letters are “guilty” of, so are permanent letters and owners.
I think it’s a bit extreme to say ordinary residents are guilty of the same things as short-term strata parasites. And yes, I do use strong langauge to get my message across, just so the people who are turning residential blocks into hotels understand that they are breaking the law, they are taking advantage of their neighbours and they are selfish and greedy.
Nearly all my guests are retired grandparents visiting family close by. My neighbour told me that he thought the apartment was vacant permanently as he hears nothing (meanwhile he is blowing cigarette smoke into my window, also perfectly legal).
That’s very nice for you – but it doesn’t change the fact that other people have horrendous experiences with holiday lets and party flats.
The permanent tenants in the building have parties, start Harleys at 6am, leave rubbish everywhere that I clean up, because it is embarrassing for overseas visitors to see. My guests, mostly hail from England, bring plenty of money to spend in the local area. They make friends with my friendly neighbouring apartment.
Again, your experience is far from universal. There are other avenues that can be explored to deal with the problems you mention – of course it helps if you aren’t breaking the law yourself.
Backpackers cannot afford to rent holiday apartments. The rental code states we can only rent to 2people per bedroom at one time, unlike permanent renters and owners that can do what they want.
The “rental code” is a voluntary and optional “code of conduct” that has no legal standing. It mentions strata only once in its 25 pages but on two occasions says that tenants must abide by by-laws. So, if those by-laws says “no short term lets” … I guess that where it becomes less binding.
In any case, the changes to strata laws will allow all owners corps to place limits on the number of residents in all units.
If a short term tenant is noisy (never happened to me in 15 years!), it is the same remedy as a long term tenant, but at least you don’t have to put up with it forever. It has nothing to do with the owner but is a police matter. Call the police and stop whinging to the wrong people.
It depends on the time of day whether the police will attend or just tell you it’s a strata matter. But, hey, if you’ve never had a complaint then no one ever has, right? Is that what you are saying? The Watergate in Melbourne and the Bridgeport and World Tower in Sydney are just figments of my imagination?
So I have broken no laws and have looked after the building when 10 of the 12 owners are interstate investors who refuse to spend a cent on maintenance. Yet somebody like Jimmy campaigns for years to take away my livelihood.
If you have broken no laws then no-one can take away your livelihood. I am “campaigning” against the people who flout by-laws and planning laws with impunity. If you are doing nothing wrong then I have no issue with you.
As for investors not paying for upkeep, Owners Corporations have a legally binding duty to maintain and repair common property. If your strata committee won’t agree to pay for it, apply for the statutory appointment of a strata manager … oh, wait a minute, they would shut down your illegal short-term lets. Can’t have that.
I make about 15% extra from holiday rental, which allows me to stay home and look after my disabled child. I have not affected anybody in anyway ever, except to make them happy. Yet given the chance, Jimmy would try and take this off me because he believes we all need to be punished whether we are annoying or not. He wants to take away the opportunity that allows beautiful loving families to visit their loved ones, in my case it is usually for the birth of a baby. They cannot afford to travel to Australia and pay 3 or 4 weeks in a hotel room. Also there are not many hotels nearby anyway.
So apply to the council for rezoning. Or buy a boarding house. If there is that much demand, you would make a mint. Ah, but then if you were “street legal” you wouldn’t be able to make use of your common property facilities for free. It’s a puzzle, all right.
Yes I agree that there are some problems in some areas like everything in this world. If you get a bad plumbing job do you run down every plumber in Australia. Do not go after good people because of a few bad eggs or one bad personal experience. Look at issues as a one off or isolated case and solve that issue. Fix the real problem. Then get over it.
Your exemplary behaviour and your special problems are not an excuse for other people breaking the law and flouting planning regulations. I am glad that your visitors are all sweetness and light. Bully for you! But I suspect it would be a different story if someone else was letting their flats to party people who were keeping you and your kid awake all night.
It’s a simple fact of strata living that everything is acceptable until someone complains. You can probably fly under the radar happily for years. But please don’t use your special circumstances as a stick with which to beat people who are trying to fix a serious problem elsewhere.
One other thing. If you are going to accuse me of deliberately misleading my readers, try to get your facts straight first or you will just end up looking foolish.
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Jimmy T
Thank you for championing this cause. You understand what this can do to people and how powerful and threatening the powerful are.
Friendlyhost, I have been to hell and back because of a gang who portray themselves as ‘mum and dad investors’. Sweet people just like you. You h-a-v-e l-i-t-e-r-a-l-l-y n-o I-d-e-a. Our home situation isn’t right yet – far from it. But with the help of some very brave individuals I trust we’ll get there eventually.
Jimmy is absolutely right – do everyone a favour and buy and live in a guest house.
Wouldn’t it just be really easy to put up massive signs in the building saying air bnb renting is illegal and any renters or letters found doing this will have the police called on them?
I’d think that would be enough to scare renters and make them leave bad reviews, which might solve the problem itself!
Mrsireland, in our building it is not that simply.
A NSW Parliamentary Inquiry has just been called into Illegal Short-Term Tourist/Visior Letting. One expects the likes of Airbnb, who have quillions in $s to throw at this, will be drumming up support to try and change legislation so that all Residential properties can be run as quasi hotels. Imagine it: Lot Owners footing the bills for all this entails and living a life of hell once the tipping point of more party goers/holiday makers to residents is reached. I’ve lived it. It’s murder.
People can send in Submissions to the Inquiry via the following link:
http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/parlment/committee.nsf/0/6B0EE6FD823BC1E8CA257EBA0083B344
If you don’t like free-for-all sharing of your home, your building, your community and paying all the bills for those who do so love the Sharing Economy, please write and say so.