#28714
Jimmy-T
Keymaster
Chat-starter

    My City of Sydney zoning, including for the building going up across from mine, defines residential lets as 90 days or more and forbids anything less.

    The fact that they blithely ignore those limits and want to encourage the rest of the state to follow them in their dereliction of duty is beyond belief and suggests that the Blessed Ms Moore (for whom I have voted in every election) doesn’t give a flying fandango about apartment owner-residents and would rather suck up to her trendoid constituency who would rather do what is cool than what is right.

    Or maybe I haven’t had enough coffee yet … but here is the tangle of facts we have to deal with.

    Fair Trading says strata schemes can’t pass by-laws banning STHLs (some lawyers disagree).

    NCAT say they can’t impose fines for by-law breaches anyway.

    FT says only councils can enforce residential-only zoning so you can’t even have by-laws that say you must obey the zoning (again, some lawyers say that is not true). 

    Councils refuse to do the enforcing (ironic, since it was a fine for illegal letting in Balmain that prompted the whole debate in the first place)

    The STHL industry is pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into their campaigns because they know the buildings where they will get the most resistance – the well-manged and well-maintained ones – are also the ones where they can make the most money.

    We know that Airbnb, who present like a social service but act like a highly politicised global corporation, have caused huge problems in other popular tourist destinations around the world.

    We know that three university studies ion NSW alone have shown that holiday lets have a detrimental effect on rents and housing availability. Airbnb dispute these reports preferring the survey from their friends at the Tenants Union that said the opposite (BTW: Where did the impoverished tenants get the money for their report, you have to wonder).

    Where does that leave us? Caught between politicians (God help us), the majority of whom have no dog in this fight because there’s no holiday letting in their constituencies, and the councils who, were this an actual war, would have been shot for desertion.

    Either way, unless we come up with some effective way of defending our turf that counters the negative effects of whatever legislation transpires, we are all screwed. 

    The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.