Holiday Hell – Short tempers over short-termers

It’s summer time when families and fun-seekers from Picket Fence Land descend on our seaside and inner city apartment blocks and expect us to tolerate antisocial behavior in often illegal short term rentals because a) they’re on holiday, b) nobody forced us to buy apartments and c) it’s their right … right? Wrong.

QUESTION: I live in a small strata block in Randwick Council near the beach. The next door apartment is let through a holiday website and there are different people in it every week.

Because they are on holiday, they often party into the wee hours of the morning and I am woken by unreasonable amounts of noise. I have knocked on the door and asked them to keep it down but even if they do, the next week there’s a new tenant doing the same.

Is it legal to let an apartment short term (the zoning is Residential C)? What can I do to prevent the noise? – N, Randwick.

ANSWER: This is a problem that our seaside city suburbs have been facing for years and it is as much to do with more of us living in apartments permanently as it has to do with investor owners’ utter lack of consideration for their neighbours.

Call Randwick Council and ask for their help (Residential C requires permission for serviced apartments). Meanwhile check your building’s by-laws for rules about noise and even tenancy terms, then hammer the apartment owners with breach notices and hit the online agency with complaints.

Also, if the apartment is breaching by-laws, your Executive Committee could maybe put a big bold notice on the offending apartment’s door (which is common property) that says something like:

“This is an illegal Short Term let. Any breaches of the by-laws including excessive noise at ANY time of day, may lead to fines of up to $550 dollars. Any excessive noise after 10pm weekdays or midnight on Fridays and Saturdays will result in police being called. Sorry to ruin your holiday but your agents should have told you that people LIVE PERMANENTLY in this building – it is not a motel.”

I’m guessing you might have to replace the notice on a weekly basis but at least they can’t say they weren’t warned.

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