This article discusses how short-term renters bylaw enforcement should be approached when determining whether they are classified as occupiers or guests in a Queensland body corporate.
Question: In a Queensland body corporate, are short-term renters treated as “occupiers” or “guests” under the BCCM Act and our by-laws?
Our body corporate committee is divided about how our by-laws apply to short-term renters.
Some committee members say that short-term renters are “occupiers” under the by-laws. They rely on the BCCM Act definition of an occupier as “a resident owner or resident lessee of the lot, or someone else who lives on the lot”, and argue that short-term renters fall into the “someone else who lives on the lot” category.
Other committee members believe that short-term renters are “guests” instead. They say that, because short-term renters usually do not have a standard tenancy agreement, they should not be treated as occupiers. They also point out that platforms such as Airbnb describe their users as “guests”.
Can you please clarify whether short-term renters in a Queensland body corporate should be treated as occupiers or guests for the purposes of applying our by-laws?
Answer: They have to be occupiers.
Chris Irons, Strata Solve:
We’d love to clarify this for you! Alas, it’s not that simple…
Qld’s strata legislation does not define ‘guest’, ‘resident’, or any other related term. It’s a case-by-case situation, and there have certainly been different adjudicators’ orders that have considered who or what constitutes an ‘occupier’, within that meaning you have cited in your query.
There’s a tendency to view an ‘occupier’ as a ‘tenant’ or ‘lessee’, and we can see that logic. The trouble arises in trying to apply a blanket meaning to the term or apply a fixed definition because, as you’ve pointed out with your example, there are conflicting views. What about someone who stays in an Airbnb-listed property for just under three months, given that three months is usually considered the cut-off for short-term/long-term? What’s the difference between two months and 29 days, or three months, especially if they are creating some problems?
You may be better off stepping back from this debate for a second and instead focusing your efforts on what it is you’re trying to achieve. Are you experiencing issues with ‘guests’ who arrive after booking through Airbnb or a similar platform? Is the issue one of by-law enforcement? Is the issue that short-term letting is creating maintenance or amenity issues? Are there insurance implications? By reframing your thinking onto the objective you want, you might find some clearer paths forward.
This is general information only and not legal advice.
Frank Higginson, Redchip Strata Law:
I think that they have to be occupiers. To suggest otherwise is to say that anyone in a short-term rental arrangement is then not bound by the by-laws and can do whatever they want without the body corporate having any rights at all. I don’t think that is the position, but that does beg the next question: what can the body corporate practically do? That is another thing entirely, when it might not even have the occupier’s contact details.
Chris Irons
Strata Solve
E: chris@stratasolve.com.au
P: 0419 805 898
Frank Higginson
Redchip Strata Law
E: FrankH@redchip.com.au
P: 07 3193 0500
This post appears in the February 2026 edition of The QLD Strata Magazine.
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