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Perhaps its time we all shifted our gaze to WA, and the Court of Appeal decision in Byrne v the Owners of Ceresa River Apartments(June 2017). In that case, the WA Court of Appeal upheld by laws that prohibited short term letting in a residential apartment block in a mixed zone. In essence, the Court found that the by law was not an interference with the right to alienate the property but a permissible restriction on use.
This case doesn’t seem to have had much if any coverage in NSW, and as the legislation is identical it puts a stake in the ground for NSW strata owners I believe. Personally, I have always thought that the power to make by laws for the administration, management, control of the use of a Lot permits such a prohibition and this case confirms that view albeit in WA and not NSW.
We need a test case in NSW to confirm that a licence to occupy on a short term basis is not a dealing in the Lot. But even without one in NSW this case demonstrates that the bald faced statements of NSW Fair Trading and the Minister are likely to be entirely wrong. It was calculated to create doubt and fear from a minister and an agency that just doesn’t want to deal with the issues.
What makes this WA case even more interesting is that the City of Belmont had given permission for the Lot owner to change the use of their Lot into a serviced apartment. The DA was made subject to owner having any other permissions that may be required, including the permission of the Owners Corporation.
AirBnB is desperate to crack the strata market and will fight us all the way but with affordability and security of tenure issues and the resentment of strata residents….. the NSW Government would be completely stupid to ignore OC. We live here….and we Vote.
Background – I live on a luxury estate, no Minister is going to tell me that I don’t have a say about short term letting. No one here is struggling to make ends meet, and when a majority of 300 owners say they don’t want it anywhere on their Estate – that is how it is going to be. Just as NSW Government cannot deal with the increasing use of STL, nor will it be able to control or deal with strata communities because who stand up against selfish owner who want to exploit our good will, our privacy, and our financial contribution. When you buy into strata, you buy property but you also buy into a statutory contract and the benefits of an entire estate and its reputation and amenity. No one in their right mind would buy into a strata that doesn’t have a by law prohibiting STL….it would just be a dumb thing to do.