What is short term letting and how does it affect strata apartment buildings?
Short term letting is the rental of an apartment for a short period of time, i.e. from one night through to a couple of months. The apartment is comes fully furnished so that a guest can feel at home with as little thy have in their suitcase.. The most common guests are holiday makers and travellers passing through.
Short term rental apartments are attractive to guests as they are usually positioned in prime locations, for example beachside or close proximity to the CBD, they are usually lower in cost when compared to a similar sized or locality based hotel room.
Guests usually find short term rentals via booking websites such as AirBnB, or house swapping sites such as HomeExchange.com.
Although the short term letting market has increased substantially in popularity, it does bring with it certain concerns and problems in strata apartment buildings.
Apartments being used solely for short term letting could now be viewed as a commercial business and therefore would require development consent from the local council. If it is operated without consent, it is therefore operating illegally. Local Council also have planning laws in place that dictates the minimum period of time you may rent out your apartment, this is usually a minimum of 3 months.
Owners may also experience problems should their contents or landlord insurance not cover the activities of short term letting, therefore placing the owner at risk of not being adequately covered for damage or liability claims.
Guests who rent on a short term basis are also left without the protection of the same regulations that govern operators and protect guests staying in hotels and motels across Australia.
Residents of the apartment complexes may experience day to day issues, including additional noise, tidiness, damage with people constantly moving in and out of the building, overcrowding and generally being surrounded by people who are always on holidays, which brings with it different behaviour. This often leads to the breach of by-laws for the owner and also unknowingly to the guest.
The owners corporation of the strata scheme (those who govern the by-laws registered with the scheme) can manage the day-to-day breaches of guest behaviour. However, it is the local Council planning laws that govern any breach of the ‘use’ of the apartment regarding short term letting, i.e. the apartment is rented for periods of times less that the laws allow. These laws differ greatly from one Council to another, some being more enthusiastic in enforcing short term letting laws than others.
The owners corporation may also register a by-law that enforces the owners in schemes to comply with local Council planning laws, therefore action may then be taken by the scheme itself (via breach of by-law) which may be a faster and more efficient process than liaising with local Council and waiting for action to be taken. However, as with all by-law enforcement actions, it must go before the tribunal nor a court, where the decision ultimately lies of whether a breach has occurred and if the by-law can limit such activity.
