› Flat Chat Strata Forum › Living in strata › Fair Trading lays down the law on holiday lets › Current Page
NSW Fair Trading has a standard by-law which covers the need for Owners to comply with all ‘laws’ applicable to your building. Just Fair Trading and ask for a copy – there you will have the approved/accepted wording.
Back in early 2016 the Deputy President of the NCAT, Stuart Westgath, wrote that short-term letting was a matter for Local Councils and that the Tribunal had absolutely no authority over matters of Planning. So, go back and check the Development Approval on your building. In NSW Strata it is normally crystal clear what is/isn’t approved when it comes to short-term tourist/visitor lets.
One need only look at buildings such as Sydney’s Maestri Towers and Bridgeport to understand what short-term letting in residential buildngs/neighbourhoods means. The NSW Land and Environment Court has consistently judged mixing the two ‘uses’ as “fundamentally incompatible”. Those who’ve been forced to live in neighbouring properties to STRs call it a “living hell”. Note well: Airbnb and other STR operators are running programs in the US etc whereby they are seeking to control entire apartment blocks.
You can go to the NCAT and, under the Residential Tenancies Act, get Orders declaring the Airbnb/other short-term letting agreements ‘non-residential tenancy agreements’ – see sections 7 and 8(h) of the NSW Residential Tenancies Act. Apply, not as a Landlord/Tenant, but as the ‘Other’ person. Box provided…just tick it. A precedent has been set, so there should be no argument against this. You must make application for against each Owner – don’t attempt to roll together several owners and don’t apply against the letting agent/platform. You are seeking orders against the owner in your building.
Also check your mandatory building insurance policy: a Term of Condition will usually read that ‘all laws governing the building must be complied with’. If not, the insurer has the right to withhold payment in the event of a major claim. So if you have owners short-term letting, they are not complying with the Development Consent.
Once you have the Orders from the NCAT, then hit the owners with Orders to Comply for not advising a ‘change of use’ and compromising your mandatory insurance policy.
Councils should be mandated to enforce their zoning. Owners have done due dilligence when they bought into Strata/Residential Suburbs. Ministers in NSW are being asked what compensation will be paid if they alter legislation which will see buildings/suburbs zoned residential converted to hotels/transit zones.
Meanwhile a City of Sydney staffer volunteers that Council will investigate STRs in a building where Council obtained Court Orders bannng the practice, and then when documents are sent providing details of new listings, the CEO marks the correspondent as vexatious.
Hope this helps.