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Responding to this story on the front page
For completeness, not only must you comply with an approved COVID-19 Safety Plan (Hospitality), but there are also restrictions on who can stay under the Public Health (COVID-19 General) Order 2021, which provides:
Clause 2.5 Maximum number of persons—holiday homes or short-term rentals
The occupier of premises in the general area must not allow the premises to be used for the purpose of a holiday home or a short-term rental by persons unless—
(a) all the persons staying at the premises are from the same household, or
(b) if the persons staying at the premises are not from the same household—
(i) there are no more than 20 persons staying at the premises, and
(ii) none of the persons is an unvaccinated adult
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I too am responding to the article on STHL.
I have not looked deeply into the reforms and wonder if a problem I confronted a couple of years ago has been dealt with.
In short, my tenants rented a 2 bedroom flat and one day without informing me, decided to live in one bedroom and rent the other via ABB.
When they took vacation, they rented out the whole flat.
When I discovered this, I told them that such behaviour invalidates my landlord insurance and asked them to stop. They were unmoved.
I called ABB who replied: “in such cases we stand by the hosts, as they are the ones we contract with”. I made clear that the hosts have no legal basis upon which they can rent out such accommodation as it violates their lease, invalidates the insurance policy I have on the premises and most importantly, they don’t own the premises. ABB more or less told me to get lost.
Long story short: unless significant changes have been made to STHL, a landlord’s right to stop STHL is subordinate to a tenant’s desire to become a host, meaning landlords who object to STHL must scoot to NCAT and find a sympathetic Member who will insists that a tenant’s obligations under the Residential Tenancy Act cannot be unilaterally undone.
In my case I had such a Member who instructed the tenants to immediately cease STHL, which they did. But it should not have required a lot of legwork and investigation by me to get to that judgement.
I have not looked deeply into the reforms and wonder if a problem I confronted a couple of years ago has been dealt with. In short, my tenants rented a 2 bedroom flat and one day without informing me, decided to live in one bedroom and rent the other via ABB.
The new registry requires tenants to upload proof that they have their landlords’ permission to run holiday rentals.
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.
Excellent news indeed Jimmy-T. Thanks.
Update: About 26,000 properties out of an estimated 70,000 in NSW signed up by deadline day. That’s a lot of empty holiday homes in NSW as we head into Summer and the post-lockdown period. You can read more about it HERE.
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.
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