A personal perspective by Annette Jeffs
Have you ever heard this expression used about your life at home.
‘You are entitled to peace and enjoyment of your property.’
It is actually a term used in a legal context within the Real Estate industry in Property Management to describe how every resident regardless of tenant or neighbour is entitled, by law, to live in their property with peace and enjoyment. This is not just some vague woke term, this is an actual legal term you will find on a tenant’s lease. General Tenancy Agreement Form 18A Section 21 No 2 A tenant must not interfere with the reasonable peace, comfort or privacy of a neighbour of the tenant. This also extends to guests of the tenants.
For whatever reason, someone may find themselves living next door to a tenant who perhaps is overly noisy. That person has options. If they happen to know the name of the Real Estate agent that rents the property they can ring and make a complaint. Alternatively, they could always contact council and find out the owner’s name and complain to the owner directly, because perhaps the property is rented directly from the landlord. There are laws in place here that will help that neighbour.
But things change for the worse when the property is rented as a holiday rental. Legally, an agreement between the owner and the rental company has a little less bite in the detail when it comes to quiet enjoyment of residents. It really is up to the property management company to make sure their terms and conditions include a clause talking about quiet enjoyment for neighbours. And perhaps a further clause stating there are consequences to not adhering to the terms and conditions they agree to. It is also up the individual company how tough they are on a paying guest, sometimes not at all. After all, they are reaping a bucket load in the holiday periods.
Now take away the property management company and you are trying to deal with the owner of the property directly. You can write but cannot force an answer. It could be in a company name so no tracing the owner on a personal level is possible.
Now just imagine yourself finally being able to afford a house, you move in, and life is sweet. Until you realise the people living next door to you are party animals.
The house is rented to people unknown who just love loud music and party on most weekends. You never see them as they drive through tall gates into a garage with an auto door.
You have two small kids who need sleep, and you work full time, and your wife works part time. Now imagine, unlike the above example where you have options, just imagine if you had absolutely no recourse... you don’t know the name of the owner of the property, there is no property management company to complain to. You have tried to go next door to ask them to be quiet, but the property is surrounded by a large, locked fence and gate and they do not answer. You have left a note but nothing changes. You have called the police out a few times but nothing changes. The police tell you to go to council. The one time you do catch them outside the fence you approach them and you are abused for your comments. And then one day you realize this is not just one group of people renting a property, this is different people turning up every week having a holiday.
This is Airbnb.
Seems pretty unfair to me that renters are not just expected to have excellent behaviour, it is legislated, and yet holiday guests can get away with absolutely intolerable conduct. All the legal terms, conditions, agreements and leases etc are basically thrown under one umbrella…regulated. They are set up for very good reasons, to protect people. Airbnb is set up to very cleverly sidestep the regulations.
The only way to address issues such as these is to regulate EVERY Airbnb/short-term accommodation property in Noosa. It is a big ask, it is a big task. But this is what local lawmakers are meant to do, protect residents.
Editor's Note:
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