[Millie]

Website is to inform our Lot Owners. It’s really not for general consumption.

And it should be remembered, we’ve got 55 of these short-term let apartments (party flats, especially over New Year, holidays, any/every weekend) in our block, plus management refused an earlier request to control numbers/entry into the building on NYE. It wasn’t just one apartment that was very obviously overcrowded. Really, in hindsight, the Fire Brigade should have been called. One can imaging ‘what if’ in the case of an emergency…

 

[Millie]

The answer to this is, of course: ‘yes.’  Though I’m constantly threatened for taking photos.  

I’m going to ask for a copy of the security camera footage of the Foyer for last night – that’ll have our EC freaking screaming blood!  And of course, their answer will be an hysterical:  ‘NO!!!!’

Those who know my little website could look at the page ‘bylaws & useful links’ for a photo or two…  Alas my camera is too good for its own good – it does all this auto-light etc correction so the foyer doesn’t look as mucky as it really is.

[Millie]

Another year in Strata Land; and may it be as fascinating and full of camaraderie as possible with good cheer to all.

I’m saddened that those ‘pro’ short-term letting didn’t answer any – not even one – of the questions put to them below.

Living right next to Sydney’s wonderful NYE display, there’s certainly a hangover of sorts here today in our building.

A note left behind on the Caretaker’s desk by the ‘security guard’ employed to keep the peace on the night reads – and this is a chappie who wouldn’t know a Resident of the building if one crashed into him:  “The night went very well nothing happen (sic) all ok so nothing to report.”

The decorations from the Christmas tree are strewn all through the foyer.  Some of them are broken and have been ground into/all through the carpet. 

No ‘Care’taking staff working here today.  And not a single EC Member who emphatically supports short-term lets lives here.  Did they let so-called ‘residents’ who booked for the night plus their 49 partygoers stay in the buildings in which they actually live?  And let’s multiply those ’50-to-an-apartment’ by 55 x short-term let apartments in our block.  But how dare I!!

One of these ‘residents’ who’d come for a night warned me:  “Careful of this lift – lots of bad vibrations….we had 50 people stay in our apartment last night.”  This was on leaving @ 12:25 pm New Year’s Day, with open beer bottle still in hand and crunching through the debris.  No wonder our lift has got the jitters.  Resident Lot Owners possibly have a touch more than a dose of the jitters to start 2014.

 

Onwards and upwards and here’s to an interesting year ahead!

[Millie]

Who can search the Strata Records?  I’m thinking of buying a flat that is advertised for sale.  Do I need to have paid a deposit before I’m allowed to inspect the records, or can I just make an appointment with the Strata Manager to look at the property’s records?

[Millie]

KayJ

I don’t know which state you live in – VIC/NSW?

On 28 November in the NSW Parliament our Planning Minister gave a lengthy speach and talked about the chronic lack of residential accommodation – I think he said that there’s currently a short-fall of 40,000 residential properties for the State’s needs.

I have two highly gifted colleagues who’ve been brought to Australia to work because we couldn’t find anyone with their skill sets here.  Both have had to resort to living in Hostels while they tried to find residential accommodation.  It took one of them six months to secure a residential property.  I kid you not.

One wonders:  How many residential properties in NSW are currently being short-term let to holiday makers?

I was recently in Melbourne and stayed in a Serviced Apartment.  I knew immediately that the building was set up to cater for my needs/safety:  there was a diagram on the door with an escape route plan, there was a smoke detector above my bed, and I knew from my involvement in this issue that the building had been constructed with far more – be they less immediately obvious – safety measures than those in my Residential building.

[Millie]

Hi KayJ

You’ve skirted around my questions, as do all the short-term let operators in my building:

By-Laws?

Strata Roll?

Development Approval?

Loan Conditions?

Critically – Building Insurance Terms & Conditions?

Zoning here is for:  ‘Permanent Residential Accommodation Only and not for the purposes of a hotel, motel, serviced apartment, tourist accommodation or the like’.  

When chatting to those staying short-term, one simple question is:  “Where’s home?”  Their reply is never:  “Here.”

How then can short-term letting be deemed as meeting our DA?

I don’t want to live in a Hotel amongst hotel guests.  I purchased into a ‘Residential’ building with the intention of using the building as my home, and that’s how I treat it.  And I treat my fellow residents, be they owner/occupiers or tenants, as members of my community.

It upsets me no end when I find things like used condoms thrown around the common property of my building.  But then I’ve no absolute proof that one of my fellow residents didn’t do this; I’m just assuming it was a short-stay individual.  This sort of thing goes a long way in demonstrating the differences in the level of respect for our property and the people who live here.

Do you live in a Residential building where there’s a large amount of short-tem letting?  Or do you just profit from short-term letting?

[Millie]

My Christmas Present:  Santa has just delivered a letter…from our local Council…they have now sent letters of demand regarding the ‘unauthorised use of apartments’ (read, apartments short-term let) in our building.  

Bless Council, bless you Jimmy!

[Millie]

Thanks so much KayJ.  I may have confused you.  People come into my home, ie the building in which I live.  Imagine if we came and stayed at your home, used your house(?) and all the gardens, garage, driveway etc.

Re your short-term lets:

Are you there to ensure that there is no damage to (common) property and that there are no parties, or is this left up to residents or the EC to manage?

And the issuing of by-laws?

And the registering of all your ‘leases’ on the Strata Roll?

And your Bank and the terms of their loan to you?

And Council…which takes you to the Land & Environment Court if you are in breach of Council’s DA – you know the extent of the fines don’t you?

And the terms/conditions of the Strata’s Building Insurance?  You all have unlimited liability – but you know this don’t you?  What if the Insurance Company uses short-term letting/non-compliant use to refuse to pay a major claim…

We have people book for a night, but the reality is that a few of them stay for an hour or three. I’ll leave it up to you to imagine what they’re doing.

I imagine your immediate focus is trying to maximise the return on your investment – is this where you’re coming from?

Might you perhaps be able to see where resident owners/tenants using the property as their home are coming from?

When people use our building for a holiday their attitude towards the building/property is very different.  And their attitude towards those who live in the building often leaves a lot to be desired.  

And then there is the lack of Community because of all the transients, if you’ve ever considered that?

Cheers

 

[Millie]

ps For the record:  do you give everyone your short-term stays a copy of the by-laws and are they aware of/comply with them?  Do you register each and every short-term ‘lease’ on the Strata Roll?  If short-term stays don’t comply with Council’s DA on your property but the Supreme Court says they’re OK, do they comply with the terms of your Building Insurance?  If you have your apartment/s negatively geared, ie you have a mortgage, does your Bank know that you’re renting it short-term – aka a serviced apartment – and not as a residential property?  I could go on but am more interested to know if you’d be happy with us all coming to stay at your place when you’re not there sometime soon?  (New Years Eve would suit.)  Cheers

[Millie]

Dear KayJ, I’m an owner/occupier in a block that has a large amount of short-term letting.  Can we – my friends and I – come and have a weekend/party in your home when you’re next away? Looking forward to your reply.  Cheers

 

[Millie]

We have our AGM tomorrow evening.

I feel as nervous as someone on a first date. Will there be beautiful fireworks, or will there be explosions?  Or will I simply be dragged off to the scaffold and…

A date anyone?

[Millie]

Thanks for your response braveheart.  And glad council has acted to help you.  Make certain to keep vigilant and document any breaches so you can give evidence to council.  The penalty is, I believe, $1.1 million for a breach of the EPAA.  We’ve been requesting council’s help/action for 27 months…we wait…and wait… and wait.

Have our AGM next week and an owner has sent us a copy of the ‘newsletter’ sent from the EC to all owners except those challenging the legality of short-term letting.  Breif:  we’ve been named/shamed and the ‘newsletter’ (I think it’s an attempt to avoid the tag of proxy farming) is chock full of misleading and/or inaccurate statements.

‘Feel the love’!

And good luck

[Millie]

Thanks for your reply Just Get On With It.  You’re correct:  the Land & Environment Court is the Place for it and it is Council’s DA so Council is the one who needs to get on with it, if I may borrow from you.  We prefer to work with Council rather than muscle them.  

Here’s an interesting quote, and one of these days I’ll add more to this story:  

We will continue to investigate how councils could be mandated to enforce residential planning, zoning or approval to prevent unauthorised short-term commercial letting of accommodation.  The proliferation of illegal serviced apartments is a huge problem…and there remains insufficient scrutiny of this damaging practice.

If only the main protagonist in our building who is hunting me in his attempt to sue would read and take note of this.  It’s a funny old world.  The problem of short-term letting is pretty much everywhere.  If/when the day comes and we have this all behind us I’ll write a guidebook so others can zero in on what to do to resolve the issue.

Cheers 

[Millie]

Thanks Scotlandx.  Been there, done that, got no where.  All roads lead back to Council – no one else has the authority to do anything about it.  

[Millie]

Our Caretaker doesn’t own an apartment – the Owners Corp has given him sole use of a desk in the foyer, from which he runs his short-term letting operations and, might I say, controls our building/our lives. We’re at the 16-year mark of a 20-year agreement with him. 

There were two attempts at Mediation plus an application with the CTTT.  It’s impossible to put a cost on the time/effort involved in all this, including 1,000-page plus submission which went to the CTTT. 

The respondents – the Executive Committee/Strata Manager/Caretaker – assured the Adjudicator that the scheme was being ‘properly’ run – the EC Members hold major positions in the ‘day jobs’ so carry lots of street cred.

The CTTT dismissed all request for orders, including that of the appointment of a compulsory Strata Manager and the removal of the Caretaker.

Sadly, considering the massive amount of time/effort involved in setting out in the greatest detail our issues with the Strata Scheme, we received not a single ‘nod’ from the CTTT – in fact the Executive Committee is very proud of the fact that our submission was totally dismissed.  For them it’s: ‘business as usual’.

Simply crushing.

[Author]

Replies