AirBNB and Brisbane apartments – why your body corp can’t save you
If you’ve been out in Brisbane’s inner-city when there’s a major event happening, you’ve likely witnessed the scenes. When there’s a home game for a football team or a sizable music festival, our apartment buildings top up with sometimes rowdy overnighters. The short-stay accommodation fills to the brim with groups sharing 1 and 2 bed apartments, with some taking their parties home to the balcony, or the pool and other common areas.
To live in these buildings as an owner or permanent tenant can come with its challenges. Late night noise, litter and damage is unfortunately not rare and we know some residents who mark their calendar and plan nights away themselves for these occasions. And while the blending of long and short stay tenancies in Brisbane’s inner-city apartment buildings isn’t a new trend, the rapid growth of AirBNB and similar services are making this easier. So it’s no surprise some owners are turning to their body corp for a solution.
And they’re not getting the answer they want, nor possibly the one they deserve. We’ve written many times on the limitations of a body corp and it seems clear they have little power when it comes to overnight guests. The behaviour of troublesome tenants can be curbed with by-laws that apply to all residents – pool hours and use of common property for example. But a body corp can’t simply ban holiday stays or AirBNB from the building.
Section 180 of the Act limits the powers of a body corp in several ways, including: “If a lot may lawfully be used for residential purposes, the by-laws can not restrict the type of residential use.” You also can’t discriminate between users of common property, limiting access to certain areas for overnighters for example. In the same way a house owner can’t stop their next door neighbour hosting a party, apartment residents can usually do no more than call the police with a late night noise complaint.
To be clear this isn’t an issue in many apartment buildings, and is really only focused on the larger towers in Brisbane’s inner city. Not sure if short-stay is happening in your building? Try googling your building name – you might be surprised!
So what do you think? Should a lot owner be allowed to rent their property how they like and to whoever they choose? Or should a body corp be allowed to choose to house “permanents” only? If all owners bought in knowing those rules shouldn’t that be enforceable? Queensland’s body corp laws are now 20 years old and a lot’s changed in that time. There’s been some tweaking of laws and a full review has been underway since the last state government were in power. Some day soon we may see change, so what should new laws look like?
We’d love to hear your views.
Short term tenants can be a problem for other residents and a body corporate should have the right to rbe vent these types of lettings
Each building should be allowed to have its own rules regarding short-term rentals, pets etc. Once a person buys into a building, they should have a guarantee that the status quo will remain. Those whom that doesn’t suit should seek to buy elsewhere.
My husbnad and I live at Skyline Apartments which is also called Mantra something. Should we known that this apartment building would become a service apartment/shadow hotel, we would not have purchased. We have listed to sell. In lieu of the quality of tempory residents’ behaviour, the values of property reduce. We also worried about our security because we have new neighbours every few days. It costed us two millions for our apartment but it only cost our next door neighbours to stay at $300 a night for 6 people.
We also find a lot of damages in the public areas such as doors and rubbish chutes. All residents are to share the costs to replace and repair them.
I can imagine this could be a real problem for occupiers in inner city apartments. Even though the body corporate can’t restrict how the owner rents out their apartment (inc through Air BNB), the body corporate should have powers to impose conditions or responsibility on the owner to take reasonable steps to prevent disruption to other occupants through giving notices to the short term residents about having regard to other occupants.
Legislative change might be necessary. Perhaps a penalty amount that can be on-charged to the disruptive tenants, or the keeping of a security deposit (although it would be difficult to decide at what point the deposit could be kept). Alternatively, legislative change could be made to allow the body corporate to decide it does not want to allow short term stays through Air BNB in the unit complex.
you cant stop owners fron doing what they want but the people using theses apartments should be mindful of the other people
Bodies corporate should have the right to limit the number of nights a unit can be rented out to short term tenants. Short term tenancy means much more wear and tear in buildings and owner occupiers and those with long term tenants should NOT have to pay the additional costs. Airbnb is a multibillion dollar US company that is not exactly transparent!
My experience as an Airbnb host has simply been amazing and I feel compelled to present the other side of the coin. I have lived in 2 inner city high rise apartments and have witnessed the raucous partygoers, objects being thrown out of windows, smoking in non-smoking buildings, residents car spots blatantly used by partygoers etc..etc.. and I can assure you, none of the guests staying with me were the ones responsible for this kind of behaviour.
Airbnb allows me to vet who stays and I choose only those who have validated profiles (photo ID and credit card info uploaded to Airbnb) and who have received great reviews from other hosts. Reviews are important, both for the host and the guest. As a host I take particular care of the unit I live in as this will be reflected in the reviews I get. I am always surprised at how tidy guests leave their room, my home is not treated like a hotel. People appreciate that you are opening your home to them, they appreciate warm hospitality and advice from a local who lives in the area.
The notion that there is more wear and tear on the accommodation is not correct either as guests are often out and about sightseeing or attending conferences, concerts etc… Guests prefer to dine out during their short stays and will not have laundry for that short period of time. Most people stay 1 – 4 nights and I have the flexibility of having a spare room for family and friends to come visit.
Hosting has been an overwhelmingly positive experience for me and I am yet to have a ‘bad’ guest experience (I have been hosting for over 12 months now). I would go so far as to say that it has enriched my life!
I agree Aroha. I used to live in our apartment inner city before we moved out. Parties would occur & loud noises music mainly from long term renters who had no regard for their neighbors. Airbnb allows me to select good quality tenants who have a visible history of good records & excellent behaviour. The benefit is that it allows me to be positively geared. Take extra good care of my property as it’s getting thoroughly cleaned & maintained up to twice a week & the people are selected by me as I don’t want anyone that is not A1 in my property.
I wonder if someone can answer this question?
Does AirBNB provide its tenants with public liability or do they rely on the body corporate to do that?