The Insurance Council of Australia’s General Manager specified during a NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into the regulation of short-term holiday letting that there is a clear matter of disclosure and obligations on consumers under the Federal Insurance Contracts Act. Members of State Parliament have ignored this advice together with the wording of the Federal legislation: An Insurer is “to inform” (the Insured) of a “duty of disclosure”. The Insured, where he/she “failed to com

When it comes to NSW Fire and Rescue, Senior Staff state that their priority is first and foremost the safety of their crew members, and on the community and environment. Assistant Commissioner Mark Whybro confirmed (10/09/19) that NSW Fire and Rescue has made a submission to the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment’s (DPIE) ‘Have Your Say’ on Short-Term Rentals. One would also expect that short-term rental operators’ priority would be the safety of their pla

Recent sales of three-bedroom federation flats at 108 Brook Street Coogee, overlooking Coogee Oval and out to sea, saw properties valued at around the $1.45-$1.48 million mark. One of these residential dwellings is listed as three separate bedrooms with shared facilities on Airbnb’s website @ $105/room/night, or up to $2,205/week. All three bedrooms are sold as Airbnb holiday lets. It’s where landlord Lucy Bloom has turned ‘a surfers’ crash pad into a stylish home’ and whe

Average share house rents in the inner suburbs leave people without enough money for food and other basics, new research shows. ”The analysis was based on Real Estate Institute of Australia data, using common indicators such as housing affordability and stress.” Airbnb boasts we are their “most penetrated market in the world” (The Australian 02/06/16), with no current figures available to clarify the State Government’s claim that in 2014, NSW/ACT had already lost 216,000 hom

An article in this week’s SMH raised serious concerns about Airbnb in NSW. John McInerney, Millers Point Community Residents Action Group, said his organisation was considering “a legal challenge” should Planning Minister Rob Stokes decree open slather on our homes. One submission to the Department of Planning states: “even the Government acknowledges (its proposal) as ‘liberal’ and critics say one of the weakest in the world…Industry capture anyone?” So how deeply has Go

As Shakespeare wrote, "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet". What though if one were to substitute‘a rose’ with a good old ‘Aussie stinker’? According to the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment’s (DPIE) ‘Discussion paper’, the Holiday Rental Industry Association (HRIA) was invited onto a Short Term Rental Advisory Committee, while NSW Council for Civil Liberties and Resident Groups were excluded. Former HRIA Chair Trevor Atherton was good enough to con

After some four years of Submissions to the NSW Parliament, residents and corporations have until this Wednesday to respond to a Department of Planning, Industry and Environment (DPIE) invitation to ‘Have Your Say’ on the use of one’s home (and surrounding dwellings) as short-term holiday rentals. Proposed alterations to our State Environmental Planning Policy [SEPP] would see Airbnb-type rentals, at the swipe of the Planning Minister’s pen, given the ‘green light’ in every