What’s the deal with short term letting in strata? Can it be banned and who is in charge of policing it. 

It’s been a contentious issue for what feels like years. Short term letting in apartments. The argument being around the rights of long-term residents being impinged on by holiday makers who hold little regard for the building. Add into the mix the assumed rights of owners to lease their investments as best suits them, the additional wear and tear to common property and a sense of lost security…it’s a real issue! 

Over the last few years the NSW Government sought to address this issue through the introduction of the Fair-Trading Amendment (Short Term Rental Accommodation) Act 2018. The Act seeks to both find a compromise between hosts, long-term residents and the Owners Corporation, by pushing responsibility for the behavior of short-term tenants equally onto the hosts, holiday makers and booking platforms. 

The Government also became the entity to manage short term letting through the creation of the registration and exclusion lists and the code of conduct.  

Can we be ban short term letting in our building?  

Not entirely. 

You can pass by-laws that are cohesive with the relevant legislation.  Which means that short term letting can be restricted to circumstances where the apartment is the hosts principal place of residence only. 

What does that actually mean? 

If a resident lives in the apartment full time, and wishes to either short term let a spare bedroom, or the entire apartment while they are on holiday themselves, they can. 

However, the Owners Corporation can pass a by-law that prohibits all other forms of short-term letting. Other by-laws to support managing occupation of the building are security device and management, and over-crowding/occupation limit by-laws.  

What rules apply to Short Term Letting 

Anyone participating in short term letting, be that the host/resident, short-term tenant and booking platforms are required to comply with the code of conduct. You can read it here. 

The main points within the code that apply living in a strata scheme are: 

1. The host must comply with the strata scheme by-laws. 
2. The premises must be registered with the Government and booking platforms are responsible for checking this is current before showing a listing. 
3. There is an exclusion register for hosts who receive two or more strikes or are otherwise excluded. 
4. The host MUST inform neighbours AND the Owners Corporation that the apartment is being used for short term letting, and how they, the host, can be contacted in the event of an incident. 
5. A host must take steps to address reasonable concerns raised by neighbours or the owners corporation. 

In the event a host (or guest) is not complying with the code of the conduct they can be placed on the exclusion register, or had a formal strike recorded against them.