Short term let strata restrictions

[Bevin1]

My Strata is meeting next month and they want to discuss restricting short term lets going forward. I rent my town house out via Airbnb occasionally. I vet the renters thoroughly, we have had no problems and I feel strongly that I should be able to continue doing this. I wondered if anyone had experienced similar issues or had any advise to give. Thanks Bev to continue doing this. I wondered if

[Paul-And-Raymond0]

It's too soon to tell if all of this becomes legislation, but there is a VERY encouraging article in the Herald today. It says that the government enquiry being handed down on Wednesday recommends the strata committees CANNOT pass bylaws to ban Airbnb..

it stated that Airbnb should be allowed unrestricted if you want to rent out your spare room and also seems to say the same for whole-of-home rentals.  The recommendation from City of Sydney was the the latter be restricted to about 100 days per year. But the committee seems to be saying that there is no need to do that!

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/airbnb-to-get-green-light-in-nsw-report-says-20161015-gs31t1.html

[David262]

In Queensland, it is written into the act that strata bylaws can't be passed which restrict the lawful use of a property (so if council zoning allows something, then nothing strata can do about it).

In Victoria, it made its way to the Supreme Court, where a verdict was handed down just a few months ago, guaranteeing the same thing down there.

So I would be highly surprised if New South Wales decides to buck the trend and doesn't end up going the same way as the other two states - certainly all eyes on it this week!

[Mary-Jane0]

The report Pauls article refers to was tabled in the NSW parliament on Oct. 19th. The government has until April 19th, 2017 to respond, and if necessary, pass legislation. It looks at this stage like it will likely rule in favour for platforms such as AirBnB to operate and will also prevent stratas from passing bylaws to prevent owners from participating in this sharing economy. Until then most will take a wait and see approach. 


This is is going to be of particular interest to me. I am a Superhost and have been having guests share my unit with me for about 3 years now. I have had no problems with guests interfering or disturbing any of the other residents and there have been no complaints made.

That being said, there is one retired man on the strata who clearly has too much time on his hands and at every opportunity he has someone in front of a tribunal for something. ( there is always one, isn't there?) He particularly seems to target women. He as been banned from attending meetings due to his behaviour but has given his proxy to his girlfriend who has now been made the owners Corp secretary. She is best friends with the woman who heads company has been hired to be our strata management.

Interestingly, yesterday I received an envelope from the strata management company. In it was no letter, no complaint, simply a three page print out of my AirBnB listing. Frankly, since nothing else was said or included nor warned about, I take this and feel it as a form of harassment. I will not be taking this lightly with them. I will wait and see for now but if they do this again or harass me further I will be filing an official complaint with their registering body.

Mary Jane





[Raymond17]

Hello,

I am running my apartment amongst a service apartment managed by a group call the Oaks.

I was in a strata committee meeting today which I was told I am unable to put a lock box in the common area. Of couse this affect the income of the management company and one of the committee member is a managing partner of the Oaks.

After this meeting I expect there will be issue coming at me.

I am currently using a cleaner to exchange my room key and I would like to know if this had to be done by an realestate agent.

Should I get pressure from the strata committee and not allow me to run my apartment through airbnb, could I get some legal advice through airbnb?

thanks in advance

Raymond