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I am on the SC in a building that allows short term rentals. We have a 24/7 concierge.
With “guests” coming in and our and not knowing where they originate from or where they have visited what are the are our liabilities to our staff and residents in regard to them catching the Coronavirus?
Do we have a health and safety issue?
What are other SC’s doing in regard to the protection of their staff and residents?
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Well, beyond taking their temperatures as they check in, or spraying them with disinfectant, there’s not a lot you can do. I’m joking of course. What I should have said is that there’s not a lot you can do as long as you allow short-term lets.
I wonder what the DA of your block says regarding holiday lets. If it says your block is residential only, the best thing you can do is change your by-laws to enforce the terms of your DA, and put the holiday flats back into the residential pool.
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.
This does raise the question of the overcrowded flats that overseas students are conned into living in.
Are the overseas students even here? Are the con-artist landlords scrabbling to pay their rent (they don’t own the flats, of course).
And is cramming all those Korean and Chinese students (if they do turn up) into six, eight or 12 to a room, not just the conditions under which any virus would thrive and spread.
Protect our health – shut down the one-flat hostels.
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.
The DA seems to allow hotel/motel style lets “with permission”. That means they can’t be allowed without permission.
But to clarify, you’d do well to get a by-law that says something like the DA doesn’t allow short-term lets without permission and the strata scheme reserves the right to withhold permission for short-term holiday lets on a case by base basis.
Basically, you need a strata lawyer to create this by-law for you … or wait until the new short-term letting strata laws come in.
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.
Short-term lets caused the spread of coronavirus in an apartment block in South Yarra, Victoria. As an owner in this block of over 500 apartments, I was advised by a concerned friend with medical connections, to leave my home. Becasue of short-term letting, no-one, including the building manger knows who lives in my home.
These recovering cases chose my home to isolate in. I am an older person and spent two months on a rural property while the government wisely and belatedly began to take holiday tourists from the wharf and airport to hotels.
What happens when this arrangement stops? Will the tourists who went overseas be back? Will I ever be able to Stay Home – Stay Safe?
In South Yarra, , coronavirus was detected in at least 10 people in the same apartment. One was from a long-tern tenant just back from America. Her story was in the daily press.
But others were from unidentified short-term-lets, some of whom were told to self-isolate and chose a high-rise with 1000 residents for their personal recovery. Of course, they spread it. I found out through sources I cannot divulge, but it caused me (as an older person) to leave my home for two months.
The owner’s corporation sent out an email to owners to say it was not in our property. Disgraceful as it only encouraged more businesses to advertise.
A residential property is not a commercial property, but Consumer Affairs in Victoria has no teeth and approves of these commercial businesses in private apartments.
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