004. How Short Term Letting Led To An Extra 1000 Residents And 18 Illegal Brothels In One City Building – With Karen Stiles
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Key Points / Timestamps
- 00:00 — Introduction and Overview
- 01:11 — Why is short term letting such a critical issue for strata buildings and owners
- 01:27 — How digital platforms like Airbnb are affecting commercialisation of short term letting (and are affecting communities)
- 02:11 — What makes a good strata tenant?
- 02:50 — The short term letting disaster story: A 1000 extra people in one building and various illegal brothels!
- 04:19 — Amanda and Karen clarify what they mean by the term “short term letting”
- 05:10 — The most common challenges buildings face when it comes to dealing with short-term letting (and the steps the building took to resolve their short term letting disaster)
- 05:52 — Section 49.1 of the Strata Schemes Management Act and it’s interpretation of by-laws
- 07:05 — How good quality security and surveillance can prevent short- term letting or mitigate damages by gathering evidence when by-laws have been breached
- 08:06 — Actions listeners can take to proactively deal with short-term letting in their building
- 09:49 — Owners corporations should not be given huge responsibility without appropriate levels of authority
- 10:39 — Books that have had a big impact on Karen and why
- 11:39 — How listeners can find out more about Karen Stiles
- 12:52 — Wrap up and thank you
Hi Amanda, I just wanted to say that I enjoyed listening to the podcast with Karen Stiles of the OCN. Could you elaborate more in a chat or article perhaps, on the section in the SSMAct that prohibits any bylaw undermining the content of any tenancy or ‘dealing’ on a lot. That preclusion seems to beg the question: what rights does an OC have on restricting the types of occupants in a building? I recall the new legislation proposing to allow owners the ability to establish a mission statement for its scheme, subject to anti-discrimnation laws. Surely, a bylaw that prohibits rooms being rented by the hour or day would take precedence over any dealing by an owner with his/her airbnb occupants or brothel operators. Could you clarify the terms in s.50??? ‘dealings’ as the intent of the law in its year of making would not have predicted the matters that have arisen decades later.
Hi Michele, thanks for your comment and thanks for listening in. I can definitely elaborate. I will publish a short episode setting out my thoughts on short term letting and how I believe it can legally be dealt with. There are also some provisions in the upcoming NSW legislative reforms that aim to address the problem and I will mention those. In the meantime, check out this article, which is a summary of a presentation I gave to owners last November: http://lawyerschambers.com.au/short-term-letting-in-strata/ I will publish this to the YSP site also.