Hi JimmyT
From recent correspondence you will understand that access to all files isn’t possible at present. The NSW Ombudsman will again be approached. Will keep you abreast of news.
Suggestion:
NSW Office of Local Government, Manager, Policy, writes: “Finally, I would like to highlight that the Local Government Act 1993 (the Act) does not give the Minister for Local Government or OLG wide-ranging powers to intervene in the affairs of individual councils. Under the Act, councils are largely independent and self-governing bodies with discretions, rights and powers conferred by law. They are primarily accountable to their electors for their actions.”
The NSW Minister for Local Government: is also the Minister responsible for NSW National Parks, who seem to have ‘partnered’ with Booking.com and are renting short-term let properties. No word as to whether or not these National Parks properties meet any statutory requirements. And can’t see where this, or DestinationNSW’s massive-scale facilitation of short-term rentals has been declared anywhere. Ministers, having sought this information from us, do not respond when presented with thousands of examples.
Byron Shire Council: Seems keen to prosecute those involved in short-term rentals. They should be encouraged and helped? More NSW case law required.
Tourism Accommodation Australia: Not aware of any notification, which followed on from their 05 April 2017 “world-first agreement” with Stayz/Expedia. They do not respond to correspondence.
ARAMA/Expedia: you are correct.
MPs voting: Members with connections to/record of short-term rentals voted on the recent ‘Bill’. And you are correct; some MPs sought pairs and did not vote.
A letter was sent to all NSW State MPs prior to the vote on Matthew Kean’s Fair Trading Bill passing the lower house. The contents relied heavily on the San Francisco model, which is now legislated. Happy to share this with you.
The MPs who did vote have set aside this correspondence and voted through a Bill which contained zero detail. One MP has reportedly admitted to this.
As previously mentioned, our approach to the NSW Parliament is based on current legislation across Federal, State, Local Government matters plus Land and Environment Court case law, Residential Title Deeds, plus the legislation imposed upon and met by Bed and Breakfast/Motel/Hotel and other accommodation providers.
Owners Corporation Network: We have failed to secure any meeting with NSW State Ministers. Opposition MPs, including shadow Ministers, have advised that they have been told to pay no attention to us (and our cohort of 1,060 signatories plus their families).
The OCN is not responding to correspondence. Some OCN Members are waiting to see how (and if) their Executive will respond.
The OCN pulled support for a ‘Day of Action on Short-Term Renting’ that was registered with the NSW State Police. Might they themselves now consider and implement such a demonstration? Support would be considered to such a move.
Will the OCN consider the NSW Coroner’s Report and recommendations, issued last Friday? There is no way that short-term ‘licenses to occupy’ can meet the recommendations which the Coroner has put to Minister Matthew Kean and ‘Innovation and Better Regulation’.
Will the OCN also follow through on another NSW Coroner’s Report? It concerns the death of a four-year-old boy in a house fire at Anglers Reach near Adaminaby. The family was staying in a “holiday home…destroyed in the fire that killed a young boy and badly injured his mother”. The tragic death of that child and the report from the NSW Police was held in Queanbeyan Court. The Court can be contacted via: local-court-queanbeyan@justice.nsw.gov.au. Was the property or any of the properties reportedly used by extended family members a NSW National Parks property?
Re your comment: “Look out for a Fair Trading demand that all existing by-laws have to be put to another vote at a future AGM. They love Airbnb and will do whatever it takes to make life easier for them.” You are correct. Hence our insistence that a strata by-law – the lowest level of governance – not be the determining factor when it comes to our homes and communities.
Directly linked to the OCN’s position, will it consider a Submission (by one of its former Board Members) that was put to Parliament; the Submission is now marked “Confidential” and it contains a forensic accounting report showing exactly what it costs members of an Owners Corporations when short-term rentals are present in a building. Where buildings see DAs/Certificates of Classification/Court Orders/NCAT Orders etc all thrown away and the building overrun with short-term rentals, would the OCN considered this as “Fraud on the Minority”?
Acknowledging that no face-to-face contact with the OCN has been possible since their last-minute attendance at a meeting on 13 December 2016, which I put together and to which you also received an invitation.
Again, will be happy to share with you the correspondence sent to Parliament, in which we maintain our position and openly disclose that it is based heavily on that of the City of San Francisco’s.