From the Forum: fake grassroots campaign fails to catch fire

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Our post on the short-term letting fire regulations sparked a fiery discussion (oops, sorry!).

And that was before we even discovered that Airbnb hosts had already swamped Planning NSW with more than 300 identical letters complaining about proposed fire safety restrictions in their Expression of Intended Effect document issued last year.

Now, we’re not talking about the sharpest tools in the shed, here – most of them forgot to mark their selection on the “name me/don’t name me” line at the top of the letter – so you might worry about trusting your life to them in a fire.

The 300-plus identical submissions were discovered thanks to some nifty detective work by the Owners Corporation Network, who discovered that all the identical letters supporting Airbnb were filed under the names of the “hosts” rather than the company.

But then, the letters from local authorities objecting to the rules were filed under the names of their heads of planning, rather than the names of the councils.  Something very fishy going on as we head towards the end of the consultation period, which closes next week.

Even so, it looks like their campaign missed its mark because the proposed fire restrictions in the new discussion documents are even tighter than what was originally suggested.

You can read some interesting and enlightening responses to last week’s story HERE.

Also in the Forum:

  • We don’t expect them to do it for free but how much should a strata manager charge for an Extraordinary General Meeting. How about $6000? That’s HERE.
  • The great debate rumbles on – is putting concrete planters on the garage floor, but not fixing them, altering common property? That’s HERE.
  • The never-ending story of a lift that won’t work and a Tribunal that barely functions. That’s HERE.
  • What section of strata law allows the Tribunal to sack the strata committee? That’s HERE.

You can catch up with the latest questions and answers on the Flat Chat Forum.

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