› Flat Chat Strata Forum › Airbnb and holiday lets › 1st NCAT case for AirBnB by-laws under SSMA2015 ? › Current Page
JimmyT said, of Dobrohotof v Bennic: “The case you highlighted was one that established that a house used exclusively for holiday rentals was not technically a dwelling.” What is crucial is that the Hon Justice Rachel Pepper clarified what is a “dwelling” and judged that short-term visitor/holiday rentals were not the intended nor appropriate use of a “dwelling”.
JimmyT said: “the only people who want to do something about it – strata owners…” There are NSW Resident Action Groups – non-strata – who have been campaigning on this issue for over a decade. (One such rocket – item of correspondence – was sent yesterday by those leading the charge on the far north coast. They are coalition partners of Neighbours Not Strangers.) The impacts of STRs are the same the world over, be it in Residential zones (suburbs) or Resdential strata. The “severe” impacts on neighbours are exacerbated in strata as we share the costs of common property upkeep plus the disruption/destruction caused is a mere wall away.
Dobrohotof v Bennic must still be considered the definitive ruling on STRs – former Commissioner of the Land and Environment Court referred us back to this judgment a few days ago. Read this judgment carefully; it contains many points of reference which are critical to the case and arguments against STRs
For those living in strata in NSW there is further weight given to us in another LEC case, where the infamous STR operator at the Bridgeport building had earlier applied to have the DA on the residential strata levels at 187 Kent Street altered to ‘mixed use’ (which is effectively what the ‘by-law option’ being proposed now could do – ie enforce or overturn a DA of ‘residential use only’). The Application plus the Appeal to the LEC – championed by the Council of the City of Sydney, who are now recommending that STRs be deemed ‘complying or exempt development’, lay out precisely why mixng STRs with permanent residents is “fundamentally incompatible”. If you’ve not yet been affected by STRs…just you wait.
To place the responsibility on individual owners to see to the enforcement of a DA, plus all other levels of compliance with Federal, State and Local Government Legislation, is insane plus so damaging and unfair.
It should and must be Local Councils who are responsible for enforcing Planning law, not an individual owner in a Strata scheme:
“…it appears that the council has been content for the Court to resolve the matter. On any view, this is unsatisfactory and amounts to an effective abrogation by the council of its fundamental duties and responsibilities. These duties include, amongst other things, to manage development and coordinate the orderly and economic use of land within the area under its control. By leaving it to the Court to determine this important issue, the council, by its inaction, has, in my opinion, failed to fulfil its core functions and has failed its constituents.” (Justice Rachel Pepper, Dobrohotof v Bennic.)
Tell us: what other issue and area of legislation is completely set aside with Councils declaring that they won’t enforce the law? Our NSW Minister for Local Government should be coming down hard and fast; Local Councils must be mandated to enforce the legislation. Could it be that Gabrielle Upton is influenced by the fact that just one of Deputy Premier John Barilaro’s properties is rented out on Airbnb for $1,850/night, plus one of her former Staffers is now a member of Airbnb’s army of employees here in NSW?