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Mr Strata, tried to find the case you are refering to on Austlii, but unsuccessfully.
Michelle, the people running serviced apartments must have a council development approval to do it and if they do, it's not illegal. If they don't, the council will eventually take them to task as the have done to Waldorf serviced apartments.
Serviced apartments are a step away from holiday rentals. That's an organised multi-apartment business with hotel-like characteristics. The council usually requires special design, such as separate access for serviced apartments, and there are other considerations. Most councils class serviced apartments as commercial activity, whereas holiday-rentals remain residential.
Mr Strata said:
I believe Get It Right may not have experienced holiday rentals in any of the beach suburbs and or when it has gone seriously wrong..
The crux of the matter here is what kind of tenants are allowed to stay by the holiday rental owner. The “seriously wrong” scenario described above seems more consistent with a hostel or backpacker accommodation and brings up images of schoolies week or backpacker christmas celebrations.
It is important to separate fear from reality. There is a risk of inconsiderate and negative behaviour from any tenant. Whether this risk is increased by holiday rentals depends on the individual owners and their care factor. Most owners screen for mature and respectful tenants, whether for long-term or short-term leases, even more so for well-furnished apartments.
The same goes for maintenance and running costs. Some tenants will use common property more than others: do excessive laundry, have excessive rubbish, have pets, etc… While others may hardly ever be in the building at all. Holiday renters are hardly the group that would stay at home and do their laundry all day, they would most likely be out exploring or visiting family and friends.
Realtor said:
L&E court Orders shut down Oaks running serviced apartments in two Sydney City office buildings..
In “Council of the City of Sydney v Oaks Hotels and Resorts (NSW) No.2 Pty Ltd [2010]”, the Oaks group had development consent to use a select apartments within two buildings as serviced, while the group actually used more apartment than it had permission to.
Hello Mr Strata,
I believe the solution is for OC is to accept the legality of holiday
rentals and to harmoniously embrace them as part of living in a strata building as opposed to own free-standing house.I disagree that it is very easy to establish a negative impact on the
remainder of the building. In our building there is one owner who is half deaf and watches TV very loudly, another owner who has a dog, another owner who feeds pigeons who often poop around the building, and yet another owner who is always doing the laundry and uses the common laundry area more than anyone else.Compare this to the quiet habitation of an elderly couple who have come from UK for two weeks to visit their son and daughter-in-law and their newborn grandson. How does one determine which of these neighbours has more negative impact than the other? How can one determine extra maintenance or water costs? One simply can't.
The negative impact that you fear maybe produced by a hostel or backpacker accommodation, but owners of holiday rentals are usually very careful whom they allow into their renovated and well-furnished apartments, because they do not want any damage to their expensive furnishings or complaints from their neighbours. They are usually active on EC and get involved in looking after the building, much more than the absentee landlords, who are only interested in collecting rent via real
estate agents.It is also questionable whether one would want to live next to an owner or a tenant who was a complete nuisance, but, due to the nature of their long-term tenancy, would have to put up with it indefinitely. At least with the temporary nature of holiday rentals, a bad neighbour will go away after a while.
The advice provided was on the legality of holiday rentals, not on whether it was a good idea, so thank you TEYS lawyers.
Thanks Jimmy, so you recommend strong arm tactics? I was thinking taking
them to CTTT if they refuse to move the hot water tanks or get the by-laws into place. However, I would prefer it, if they had to take me to CTTT, I agree.Isn't forcibly disconnecting their hot water tanks a bit much 😉 as much as
it sounds like fun. And then I'd have to pay the plumber…. 😉Update: this is the response I received from Teys Lawyers who contribute regularly to this site:
“Simone from our office passed your enquiry to me.
To answer your question, a by-law to prohibit short-term letting (or
holiday rentals) is prohibited under NSW strata legislation.It seems the use of these by-law is prevalent all throughout NSW, with most owners corporations and executive committees passing them in the hope that no legal challenge is mounted to question their validity, to 'call their bluff'.Our firm routinely acts for owners to strike down these by-laws, and we
have a 100% success rate in this area. Please let us know if we can assist you further?Kind regards,Tom—
Tom Bacon
Senior
Lawyer
TEYS Lawyers
The Strata Law Experts
02 9562 6500
Suite 73, Lower Deck
Jones Bay Wharf
26-32 Pirrama Rd
Pyrmont NSW 2009″Dear PeterC, thank you for your reply. I don't think that blazen disregard for simple decency would stop the upstairs units from voting down the by-law they do not need to have. I am wondering what can be done if this happens? CTTT?
Thank you. I've spoke to Department of Fair Trading and they confirmed as much. I will give the OC another chance to review the by-law and if still no joy will go through mediation and then, if need be, adjudication.
Thank you struggler. You are saying that you don't see how the OC can reasonably deny renos, what if they do? That is exactly the question.
Council approval is the NEXT step after getting strata permission. In our case, we require a Complying Development Certificate (CDC) from the council. To get the CDC, we need to get Strata's permission.
So what can we do? There's got to be a way to get your renovations done even when the strata says no. ?! Thank you
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