Enter your email Address

  • Home
  • What is strata?
    • Strata Legislation
    • What is Strata?
    • Strata Property Basics: Strata Owners Corporation
    • Strata 101: Strata title
    • Understand Strata Management with this Five-Minute Guide
    • Cracking the Strata Fees Code
    • Strata Finance
    • 2021 Updated Guide: Master the Art of Strata Insurance
  • Strata Topics
    • Strata Information By State
      • New South Wales
      • Queensland
      • Victoria
      • Australian Capital Territory
      • South Australia
      • Tasmania
      • Western Australia
      • Northern Territory
    • Strata Information By Topic
      • COVID-19
      • By-Laws & Legislation
      • Smoking
      • Parking
      • Noise & Neighbours
      • Insurance
      • Pets
      • Your Levies
      • New Law Reform
      • Maintenance & Common Property
      • Committee Concerns
      • NBN & Telecommunications
      • Building Defects
      • Renting / Selling / Buying Property
      • Strata Managers
      • Building Managers & Caretakers
      • Strata Plan / Strata Inspection Report
      • Apartment Living Sustainability
  • Blog
    • Newsletter Archives
  • The Strata Magazine
    • The NSW Strata Magazine
    • The QLD Strata Magazine
    • The VIC Strata Magazine
    • The WA Strata Magazine
  • Advertise With Us
    • Site Sponsors
    • LookUpStrata Site Advertising
    • Your Own Branded Newsletter
  • About Us
    • Testimonials for LookUpStrata
  • Help
    • Ask A Strata Question
    • Q&As – about the LookUpStrata site
    • Sitemap

LookUpStrata

Australia's Strata Title Information Site

Whitbread Insurance Brokers
Australia's Top Property Blog Dedicated to Strata Living
Advert NSW Strata MAGAZINE
You are here: Home / Noise / Strata & Airbnb: How to stop Airbnb in your building

Strata & Airbnb: How to stop Airbnb in your building

Published March 27, 2018 By The LookUpStrata Team 1 Comment Last Updated November 23, 2019

Sharing is caring!

25shares

This article about how to stop Airbnb in your building has been supplied by Reuben Schwarz, BnbGuard.

Airbnb and other short-term letting sites have taken Australia by storm. Unfortunately, these rentals often negatively affect the neighbourhood around them.

How to stop airbnb in your building

GET THE LATEST STRATA NEWS / ARTICLES DIRECT TO YOUR INBOX HERE

This is particularly true if the listing is in an apartment block. While it’s often the impact on the quality of life that residents complain about – people coming and going all the time are hardly good for creating a community feeling, even if they’re not having loud parties – short-term rentals can also expose residents to problems like:

  • Unsecure buildings – Once shared, keys and swipe cards can be easily copied. Lockboxes can be broken into and their apartment identified. The strangers staying in a short-term rental down the hall aren’t going to be as carefully vetted as a long-term tenant, which is why drug-parties and pop-up brothels can occur now in any building.
  • Uninsured property damage – Damage to common areas or other apartments that results from a short-term rental sometimes isn’t covered by a strata’s insurance. That’s because apartments are being used commercially, not residentially, which means the insurer wants a higher insurance premium to cover the extra risks. It’s easy for a strata to get caught out if they don’t know it’s happening.
  • More wear and tear – Typically about twice as much, especially on lifts. The owners who put up the listings get all the benefit, while the building’s other residents must deal with the extra costs and risks.

We’ve found that 5% of units in most buildings in high-demand areas are listed on short-term rentals sites. Often it’s much higher – the most we’ve found is 40%. The most popular areas are those close to tourist attractions and to universities, but increasingly we find unwanted short-term rentals throughout major cities and into the countryside.

Strata buildings in Australia often don’t have a lot of options to push back against unwanted sublets. This sometimes makes it difficult to find out how to stop Airbnb in your building. Unless the state has passed clear legislation (eg WA blocks it without council consent, while SA allows it), most battles with owners will end in the courts or tribunals. In Victoria and NSW, so far these have supported the owners.

Still, strata buildings have a few options to control short-term letting. So, find out how to stop Airbnb in your building:

  1. Report them
    In most states, short-term letting rules are defined and enforced by local councils. Councils don’t like it when a unit zoned residentially is used commercially, and usually, the host doesn’t bother getting the correct permissions.

    One word of warning, however – while anyone can report an infraction, it’s up to local councils to enforce these rules, which they do to varying degrees with their often stretched resources.

    You can also threaten to report activity to the ATO. It isn’t clear yet how often host income isn’t reported and taxed in Australia, but it’d be very easy not to, and the ATO is taking a special interest in it. There are also capital gains implications for using a property commercially which the ATO will be keen to enforce.

    If a tenant is listing the unit online you can report them to the unit’s owner or property manager. They’re very unlikely to have permission and so are probably breaking their lease and will stop quickly rather than face eviction.

  2. Pass bylaws
    The rules, precedents and best approaches vary by state and, unfortunately, often local council as well. It’s best to get legal advice on whether a strata bylaw will work for your situation. But a common strategy used by strata buildings is to pass bylaws saying all residents must follow local council regulations. This allows them to take action when an owner flouts commercial-use restrictions in their building, without having to rely on councils to enforce them.
  3. Get help
    You’re not alone with this problem. Encourage your residents to report any suspicious behaviour they see. Most don’t want holiday rentals next door and will be keen to report any strangers coming and going with luggage, or rules infractions these strangers do.

    You can also use a cost-effective monitoring service like BnbGuard. Our advanced technology monitors more than a dozen sites for you, reporting any online ads for units in your building. We also stay on top of new sites that spring up – and there are more every day – to make sure you know what’s going on in your building.

Embed

This post appears in Strata News #184.

Read Next:

  • NSW: How will the proposed Airbnb changes affect me?
  • QLD: Q&A How to Stop Short Term Rentals

Reuben Schwarz
BnbGuard
E: [email protected]

Visit Strata Noisy Neighbours, Renting / Selling / Buying Strata Property OR Strata Information Pages by State.

After a free PDF of this article? Log into your existing LookUpStrata Account to download the printable file. Not a member? Simple – join for free on our Registration page.

Comments

  1. AvatarA Conroy says

    December 31, 2020 at 3:49 pm

    An owner ( investment property) in our complex has been leasing a unit on Air B n B without informing the Owners Corp./Strata Manager or local Council. They have now been reported to the local Council, in the Perth WA region and are seeking planning permission to let via Air B n B. The Owners Council have objected, but our strata managers inform us that under the new WA strata legislation it would take a 1oo per cent vote in favour of banning short stay accom. in the complex, which seems completely unfair. It seems that the State government and local councils have been caught short with the rise of short stay accommodation and there are gaps in the regulations/legislation – a lack of foresight by policy makers. ”

    Interesting that the local council have not advised the owner to cease advertising on air b n b, even though it is technically a breach of the town planning regulations. Some councils have prosecuted owners for this – as it is a commercial let not a residential let.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Search For Strata Articles

  • Advert Stratabox
  • StrataBox Advert
  • Advert: StrataLoans
  • Advert: StrataLoans
  • Advert: StrataLoans
Subscribe Newsletter

TESTIMONIAL

"The newsletter is very helpful and gives great guidance with commonly asked questions." Gayle, Lot Owner – November 2020
"I love your regular emails and now this fantastic magazine! Keep up the great work. " David, Lot Owner – August 2020

Quick Login

Log In
Register Lost Password

Categories

  • COVID-19
  • Ask A Strata Question
  • New South Wales
  • Queensland
  • Victoria
  • Australian Capital Territory
  • South Australia
  • Tasmania
  • Western Australia
  • Northern Territory
  • ByLaws & Legislation
  • Smoking
  • Parking
  • Noise & Neighbours
  • Insurance
  • Pets
  • Levies
  • Law Reform
  • Maintenance & Common Property
  • Committee Concerns
  • NBN & Telecommunications
  • Building Defects
  • Renting / Selling / Buying
  • Strata Managers
  • Building Managers and Caretakers
  • Strata Reports / Plans
  • Sustainability

Recent Comments

  • Liza Admin on QLD: Q&A Safety & Permissions for Car Park Storage
  • Liza Admin on QLD: Standard Module regulation changes – committee membership
  • Liza Admin on QLD: Q&A Appearance of Lot. What constitutes a breach?
  • William Marquand on QLD: Q&A Can I Access Body Corporate Records?
  • William Marquand on QLD: Q&A Exclusive Use Common Areas inc. Storage Spaces
  • Tyrone Shandiman on NSW: Q&A Are There Strata Laws Stopping Me From Gardening on Common Property?
  • Pat on WA Strata Complexes: Apartment Living During COVID
  • Neville Sanders [Whittles Strata Management] on QLD: Q&A Safety & Permissions for Car Park Storage
  • Leanne on NSW: Owners Corporation Run With No Meetings + No Maintenance
  • Tyrone Shandiman, Strata Insurance Solutions on QLD: Q&A Is a plumbed in dishwasher covered under strata title insurance?

WEBSITE INFORMATION

  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions of Use
  • Terms of Use for Comments and Community Discussion
  • Advertising Disclosure
  • Sitemap

SCA Membership

SCA WA Membership

ASK A STRATA QUESTION

Disclaimer

The opinions and/or views expressed on the LookUpStrata site, including, but not limited to, our blogs and comments, represent the thoughts of individual bloggers and our online communities, and not those necessarily of LookUpStrata Pty Ltd. In all instances, information should not be taken as advice and independent legal advice should be consulted.

CONTACT US VIA EMAIL

Copyright © 2021 · LookUpStrata ® Pty Ltd · All rights reserved