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The other day I put a dark thought into the mind of a contact in the NSW government.
Fair Trading has been running a campaign about the dangers of dodgy phone and tablet chargers after a young woman was killed when her USB booster went seriously awry and caused an electrical backfire.
“Think about all those illegal phone and laptop chargers attached to multi-socket power boards in over-crowded student flats,” I said. Cue a stunned silence.
Just a few hours later we started reading reports about a fire in Sydney in shipping containers that had been converted into a makeshift hostel. That no one was killed is little short of a miracle.
Coincidence, yes, but this is what we are reduced to. People can’t get cheap, safe, clean accommodation so they are living like refugees, right in the heart of our cities.
Meanwhile fat cats and greed heads are turning their residential units into illegal holiday rentals and de facto hotel rooms because they can make more money that way. Laws are ignored, as are the effect on health, welfare and safety of their neighbours.
So what is the government doing about it? Nada, zilch and nothing.
In the past month the NSW government turned its back on strata owners and tenants by putting long-awaited and much-needed strata law reform in a box, marked “not to be opened until after the election”.
As far as short-term lets go, it passes the buck on to local councils who more often than not do nothing, no doubt waiting for the next disaster to nudge someone else’s elbow.
Meanwhile residents of apartment blocks where illegal rentals are happening right under their noses turn a blind eye because they “don’t want to cause trouble”. Hope that works for you when your building goes up in smoke.
But let’s forget self-interest for a second. Consider this: every residential flat that’s illegally let on a holiday website is another shipping container of kids looking for a safe bed for the night.
We ought to be ashamed of ourselves. There’s more of this on flatchat.com.au/forum.
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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I loved the article in this morning’s SMH ‘Containers of Strata Shame’. Well put. I live in Eastwood and there is a flood of new arrivals, buying up houses and converting them into ‘legal’ and ‘illegal’ boarding houses (it is very difficult to tell the difference) using the NSW Government SEPP 28 ‘Affordable’ housing legislation. They say they are making a ‘granny flat’ for overseas family. This ‘flat’ then gets ‘certified’ by a private certifier, waved through the local council and off they go, putting partions up in the bedrooms, filling the place with up to three people per bedroom at at least $200 per week each, people living in garages etc etc – all the way to super profits. (Neighbours get three day’s notice of commencement of work). No regulation whatsoever, no parking (according to the SEPP poor people don’t have cars, only bikes so they only have to provide bike ‘parking’), no fire escapes, no ‘working with children and young people’ checks on the owners/rack renters, no washing and drying facilities, rubbish overflowing the bins. They are running businesses in a residential area, they don’t have to pay land tax and one wonders if the ATO is on to them. I’m shocked that in a rich country people are forced to live like this. Eastwood is in the Macquarie University catchment area. Macquarie University makes super profits (in the millions of dollars) from overseas students, it has lots and lots of land upon which could be built affordable, good quality housing. Instead it chooses to ‘outsource’ accommodation to the private market, with predictable and somewhat shocking results. Yep, wait until there is a fire and lots of deaths. But, will it change anything??? I think not. Despite the fact there was a NSW Parliamentary inquiry into boarding houses, nothing has changed. In fact there are more and more by the day. At the recent Sydney Home and Building show, the feature item was ‘how to make a motza out of granny flats’. Yeah, but oppressing others.
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