In April laws commenced that prevented an owners corporation from prohibiting short term letting, provided the apartment is where the host lives. The new laws also referred to a Code of Conduct, which had not been released at the time the law changed.
The long-awaited Code of Conduct was released in late November and came into effect on 18 December 2020, placing obligations on both hosts and guests. Hosts, among other responsibilities, will be required to hold public liability insurance, and must provide contact details to neighbours. Guests are bound to behaviour standards including in relation to excessive noise and damaging common property.
Of most impact is the exclusion or banned list. Guests and hosts who fail to abide with the Code of Conduct can be excluded from short term letting, and platforms, such are AirBnB and Stayz are obligated to not allowed banned hosts or guests to short term let.
What should you be doing?
New by-laws that sit in harmony with the legislation should be prepared. If you have a by-law that blanket bans short-term-letting, it is no longer valid. By-laws cannot contradict the legislation. You can have a by-law that prohibits short term letting if the apartment is not the host’s ‘principal place of residence’.
The terms and conditions of your new by-law should incorporate the Code of Conduct requirements and can place reasonable requirements on hosts, such as informing the Owners Corporation of who and for how long people are staying, who the emergency contact is, and if the host is ever lack banned.