Airbnb dramas

DISCLAIMER: I'm a reporter looking for someone to speak to for a Domain story (who is happy to go on the record), but also just keen to hear your thoughts.

Has anyone decided not to rent out their property on Airbnb anymore due to council threats/fear of fines? And if you're still continuing to rent it out, is it because the fines are not significant enough or likely enough to stop you being an Airbnb host?

[email protected]

 

Paging @Gockie

 

Yes... I'll talk. I'll email you tomorrow with my thoughts!
From memory there's also a Somersoft poster who I recall was asked by her strata to stop short term leasing.

 

does BBC not allow airbnb?

 

Hi Jenni, the fines are certainly significant, but nobody has yet been fined. That's because people who are threatened would have pulled their listing down.
Fullylucky, body corps and councils don't like short term rentals. From the council's perspective, renting short term contravenes the accepted use of a property in nearly every case.
Tasmania, however, have recently given it the green light and the NSW govt are mulling over it.

 

Please do email me . Keen to get someone on record! Have someone threatened with fines who is now not listing over Chrissy. We have about a week left to write, so keen to get the story done before Wednesday next week

 

I think someone in perth got fined by city of vincent for repeatedly ignoring warnings not to do airbnb. I remember him losing the fight over it, not sure if it qas in council meeting or not. Sounded like he was pretty irresponsible to neighbours etc though as he'd do 1/2 day weekend rentals in an area with a lot of bars etc so naturally attrated party animals

 

City of Sydney on Airbnb Confusion reigns as short-term rentals through Airbnb carry high cost for property owners

 

Written by a colleague! Seems there's different fines threatened if you're in an apartment as well!

 

That story wasn't about a fine. It was about the fees council wanted to charge the owner to legitimately change the use of her two flats i.e. to make them short term rentals. The Section 94 contributions vary from council to council.
If she opted to not head down that path but kept renting them out as short term rentals, then the council may decide to fine her.
I think councils (led by the State govt) will come around and revisit their planning laws. A licensing regime for Airbnb properties makes sense. People in apartments will still have body corporate issues to content with, though.

 

Everyone wants a cut!

 

@larrylarry ...and it is arbitrage until the guidelines are enforced.

 

I know, it's just an interesting point to note re: different fines for apartments as well (I'm told there's two tiers of fines in apartments).

There's an inquiry underway, which will see councils revise their LEPs by my understanding. But these things always take time...

 

Not sure. I think it's just that different councils would have different amounts for their fines - maybe when they get really cranky they amp it up. Councils have different Section 94 charges, too.

 

That was me who got shut down by strata! Happy to talk depending on the level of "being on record"...

 

It didn't get to council, though? Even if councils start permitting short term lets without going through the whole DA procedure, lots of body corps will still block it by being specific in their by-laws.

 

I'd need to use a real name and suburb in the article to be on the record, but interested in background discussions anyway!

 

Hi Jennifer,

do you have a link to the article?

Cheers, Elives

 

As a Strata Manager:

The issue is certainly more complicated than Owners Corporations (Strata) wanting 'a cut' or to ruin the fun (or profit). There's serious down-side exposure to OCs from short-term-letting if the guests are disruptive, noisy, rude, inconsiderate, damage common property, etc.

Perhaps better framed for the audience on a property forum: if your rental yield was threatened by tenants leaving or complaining because of frequent disruption from a neighbouring unit that was being short-term let, you might like someone to be sticking up for your tenant's right to quiet use and enjoyment.

I think part of a responsible solution, yet to be legislated, would require short term tenants to be held accountable for their behaviour in a meaningful way. How else could we protect the good majority and the innocent victims, from the badly behaving minority?

 

I totally get what you are saying and agree with you... but only assuming the Airbnb guests are actually disruptive, noisy, rude, inconsiderate and damage common property, and also assuming "normal" tenants are perfectly behaved.

From our Airbnb experience, you can pick out the "partyers" and decline them (which is what we did)- and we found that the vast majority of our guests (if not all) were considerate, quiet and caused no damage. You can also view (although not sure with the new guidelines if this is still allowed) past reviews of guests- if a guest had no ratings, or bad ratings, we were likely to decline them also.

Given the rating system, there is no incentive for anyone to lie or give a false review as you can't see your rating from the other party until you have both submitted it- so if a guest was particularly horrible, the host will say they were horrible as it won't impact the host's rating (ie through "retaliation ratings"- "you said I wrecked your house so i'm going to say your house is crap"- this can't happen).

On the other hand, we have owners in our building that throw parties every weekend, and even had a lovely neighbour next door vomit all over our newly laid common property carpet and didn't clean it up for several days.

I think Airbnb gets a much worse rap than it deserves- yes there are bad guests out there (but there are mechanisms in place to prevent these people from staying at your place, and they are generally filtered out), but there are also bad tenants (and owners for that matter!)

If it came down to it though, to give other owners peace of mind, I would be willing to pay a common property deposit or similar in good faith, and have my number available at all times to ensure if there were any complaints, I could be contacted immediately and speak to the guests. Not sure if that is a solution?