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Forget the buck’s night strippers’ glitter clogging up the lifts, the weekend footy fans vomiting in the stairwells and the country kids doing cannonballs in the communal spa, there is a much more serious consequence of illegal short-term lets.
Every unit in a residential-only building that’s set aside for holidaymakers is another home that isn’t available to long-term tenants, pumping rents even higher just so an absentee landlord can maximise their investment.
This newspaper recently reported on an apartment block in Sydney where about one-third of the units are let for periods as short as one night, despite the local council DAs specifically forbidding holiday lets.
That’s nearly 60 units in one building that aren’t available to tenants because it’s more convenient and/or lucrative for the owners to rent them to tourists and business people.
So how widespread is this? Does your apartment block have holiday lets in defiance of local zoning, planning approval or even its own by-laws?
Email us at rentals@flatchat.com.au. We’d love to know the number of units in your building, the number of illegal short-term lets and the suburb.
We won’t publish any details but it’s time someone took a long hard look at how illegal short-term lets are distorting the rental market.
A version of this article has also appeared on the Sydney Morning Herald’s online pages and in the print edition of Domain.
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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This is in response to your rental rant article of 13-14 June. I’m a bit late in responding to
your request re short stay letting but I hope this will be helpful.
I am an owner-occupier in an older block of 7 units in Coogee. Three other units are owner-occupied, and the remaining three are let.
We owner-occupiers have had serious disruption to our lifestyle over the last two to three years with holiday letting, short-stay letting in the two units. Minimum stay in both is three days. They are
both advertised on airbnb. It took me a bit of a search to find the two units advertised on airbnb – but I found both advertised, with lots of images that showed beyond doubt that the units were at this address.
I then wrote a letter to the local Council, detailing the problem and pointing out the airbnb site. The compliance officer inspected and subsequently issued notices of intention to issue an order. We await compliance!
I intend to write to the Mayor about the subject of your article, that holiday letting in areas not zoned for such, is part of the cause of the serious shortage of long term rental property in this area.
A two-bedroom, one sunroom unit in this block can take in $1,200 a week holiday letting, and more money than that with extra people staying (i.e. more than four and up to nine).
Prior to the holiday letting, I think the long term rent for the unit was around $700 to $750 per week.
(no view, no garage, no balcony, no parking, older block).PS. What is the situation with public liability insurance and building insurance should a claim arise from a “guest” short-stay who is injured on common property, or whose actions damage common property? Would not insurance companies have exemption clauses regarding commercial holiday letting, short stay letting in residential blocks not zoned for short stay letting? Would such activity void the policy?
And is a strata manager, or the Executive Committee under an obligation to disclose the short stay letting to their insurance company – duty of disclosure clause?
If this angle of attack against holiday letting is a valid one, perhaps it could be used to help free up the rental market for long term renters.
Scolari said …. is a strata manager, or the Executive Committee under an obligation to disclose the short stay letting to their insurance company – duty of disclosure clause?
Yes … it is obliged to do so, and if there’s any consequential increase in the insurance premium, an Owners Corporation (O/C) can with the consent of the Owners concerned, pass that increase on to them under the provisions of Sect 77 of the NSW Strata Schemes Management Act (the Act).
Should those Owners unreasonably refuse to give that consent, then an O/C can seek Orders under Sect 149 the Act to have those Owners’ levies appropriately increased.
Another problem that holiday or short term letting causes is the noise that some holiday tenants make. The permanent neighbours would have to tolerate different behaviours each time the holiday tenant changes. It might sound like a small issue but for the permanent residents there, it can be pretty infuriating at times. The authorities ought to do something about this issue immediately as it is also very unfair for other owners who are renting out units on a long term basis and charging much lesser. If renting out for storage purposes is still ok, but definitely not for stay.
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