Latest News

A Victorian landlord successfully won a legal appeal to evict tenants who had been sub-letting her apartment through the home sharing website, Airbnb.

The Victorian Supreme Court found in favour of the landlord, who had applied to evict her tenants after she found out they were sub-letting her Melbourne apartment on Airbnb.

This decision overturned an earlier ruling by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal who dismissed the application because it considered the tenants had granted a licence to occupy, not a lease.

However the Supreme Court found that because the tenants listed the whole apartment and not just a single room, it was in breach of the lease provisions and ordered them to be evicted.

The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court did say that the case should not be used as a test case for the legality of Airbnb in Victoria, because it related to the particulars of the lease in question.

REINSW looked at the insurance implications and who is responsible if something goes wrong, in the January/February Real Estate Journal.

Parliament inquiry into short-term holiday letting in NSW

The Parliament of New South Wales is currently holding an inquiry into the adequacy of the regulation of short-term holiday letting in NSW.

This includes looking into:

• the current situation in NSW and comparing with other jurisdictions
• the differences between traditional accommodation providers and online platforms
• the growth of short-term and online letting, and the changing character of the market
• the economic impacts of short-term letting on local and the state economies
• regulatory issues posed by short-term letting including customer safety, land use planning and neighbourhood amenity, and licensing and taxation.

The parliamentary inquiry has so far held three public hearings, the last on 30 May 2016.

Oatley MP Mark Coure, Chair of the Committee on Environment and Planning, said: “The Committee is looking closely at a number of specific areas where regulations need to be updated, including finding a sensible balance between the rights of strata property owners and their neighbours, and identifying opportunities to simplify the regulation of traditional accommodation businesses.

“I also want to make sure that the powers available to manage the industry are clear and practical, are well understood by regulators, and can satisfy the community that they will do the job.”

He added that he was hopeful that the Committee will be able to report its findings and recommendations to the Parliament by the end of September 2016.

Further information about the inquiry can be found here.