IT’s BEEN a hard industry to monitor however Noosa residents can rest easy to some extent with the introduction of the shire’s new short stay law which will allow residents to report problems with neighbouring short-stay accommodation properties 24 hours a day via a new hotline setup by Noosa Council.
It’s among a raft of measures – a response to calls from the community – to make sure short-stay property owners are being good neighbours and dealing with problem guests.
Noosa Mayor Clare Stewart said that other areas in Australia such as the popular coastal region of the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria had introduced similar provisions to mange the impact of providers such as Airbnb and Stayz short say accommodation on residential areas.
“New South Wales has a state-wide framework. With the Queensland Government shelving plans for a state-wide approach, we’ve had to act in response to calls for controls,” Mayor Stewart said.
Under the local law, owners of properties let out to short-stay guests must apply for an approval which must be renewed annually, and nominate a contact person to swiftly deal with problems reported via the hotline – (07) 5329 6466.
“It will take some time to process applications for all of the short-stay properties, as well as build the list of nominated contact people, but in the meantime, complaints can still be made via the hotline and they will be investigated.”
Mayor Clare Stewart said a new code of conduct established basic ground rules for guests to help limit the impact of short-stay properties on residential amenity.
“It’s not about stopping guests from having a good time, it’s simply making sure they’re mindful that they’re holidaying on residential streets where people permanently live.
“The code of conduct requires guests to limit excessive or unreasonable noise, it’s not about stipulating what guests can and can’t do.
“But with more than 5,000 short-stay properties – the majority under out-of-town, interstate and international ownership – we now need management of the sector.”
The local law – in effect as of February 1 – introduces a code of conduct for guest behaviour and minimum safety standards for short-term-let properties to help protect guests in the absence of state government regulation.
Noosa Council will also trial the use of a security firm to monitor problem properties.
The application period is now open.
“The new local law provides a local management framework, a code of conduct for guests, and an avenue for our residents to raise complaints. This local law finally gives us some overdue tools to address issues with this growing sector.”
To find out more – noosa.qld.gov.au/short-stay-letting