The announcement by the NSW government, made earlier this month, announced a raft of reforms designed to prevent investor owners from using their apartments for short term, Airbnb-style lets. 

The reforms at a glance:

• 180 day limit per year for short term holiday letting by owner occupiers (if the host is not present) in Greater Sydney, with 365 days allowed in all other areas of NSW
• Councils outside Greater Sydney will have the power to decrease the 365 day limit to no less than 180 days per year.
• Two strikes and you are out policy for guests and hosts who commit breaches of code (noise levels, damage)
• Failure to comply with the code of conduct will result in significant penalties of up to $1.1million for corporations and $220,000 for individuals.
• The introduction of the new framework will require changes to existing strata scheme management laws which must be approved by Parliament.

But the lack of detail in the proposed reforms has left people perplexed.

Expert strata lawyer, owner of Lawyers Chambers on Riley, and Founder of Your Strata Property, Amanda Farmer, has been fielding a flurry of communication from puzzled owners and strata managers, who are unsure how, or even if, they can regulate short term letting in their building.

She told WILLIAMS MEDIA the most common question she is getting is from apartment owners that are unsure if the current short term letting by-laws are now redundant.

"I have clients who I have drafted short term letting by-laws for, and these clients are now ringing me and asking if the law I've drafted is worth nothing now, because the government has announced there is going to be new legislation.

"To that, I say to them that no, those by-laws are still valid and binding because we have only had an announcement of the proposed reforms - there is no legislation in place yet.

Farmer relays that many buildings already have these by-laws in place. 

"The law has not changed. We expect that it will be some months before we will see the legislation which brings these proposed reforms into effect. Until then, it should be business as usual for those strata buildings that already have by-laws in place regulating short term letting," Farmer said.

MD of Vantage Strata -- National who held the position of President Strata Community Australia (ACT Chapter) for more than five years, Chris Miller, told WILLIAMS MEDIA that strata managers are also querying the status of those by-laws since the announcement of the reforms.

"The confusion is around precisely what, if anything, an owners corporation will have to do in response to this policy in order to apply the enforcement provisions.

"There is also added confusion around the detail in what circumstances short term letting is going to be allowed, and in what circumstances owners corporations are going to be positioned to enforce the restrictions that have been intimated," he said.

Miller thinks the NSW government needs to come out and clear up the confusion.

"I think the government should come out with an update, a statement of intent, around the detail - and they should have the resources available to answer the questions that are being raised by industry groups," he said.

Ms. Farmer agrees, telling WILLIAMS MEDIA that the government has to move quickly.

"I think government needs to move quickly with what these reforms are going to be. The initial announcement was that we would see some draft legislation within a few months. I would be very pleased to see a draft in a few months, and they need to stick to this timeframe because I would hate to see for everything to now go quiet again just when we are starting to see some momentum," she said.

Read the new short-term holiday letting regulations on the Office of Fair Trading website.

Related reading:

"Draconian restrictions are ineffective" says strata manager of Airbnb crackdowns

Rental contracts are being amended to restrict subletting tenants

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