Legally questionable: A potential customer scrolling through a website featuring Airbnb units available for rent. HBA is of the view that no Airbnb or STRA should be allowed in residential properties. — YAP CHEE HONG/The Star
PETALING JAYA: Buying a new property for retirement is usually a happy and peaceful experience for many.
But Ushadavi G. Rajagopalan, a retiree, did not expect her move from Melaka to Port Dickson to end up with numerous trips to the authorities to stop short-term rental accommodations in her condominium building.
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Her efforts to enjoy a peaceful retirement were rewarded when the Strata Housing Tribunal under the Local Government Development Ministry ruled in her favour on June 7 for the management body of her condominium to stop short-term rentals as it did not abide by the Fire Department regulations.
Ushadavi had bought a unit at the Straits View Villas Condominium in Port Dickson in 2019, not knowing that the short-term rental arrangements there were going to come with “nuisance and vandalism caused by guests”.
She then decided to study the Strata Management Act 2013 and found that there were provisions to stop short-term rentals.
However, upon failing to get any proper response from the authorities, Ushadavi and two of her neighbours – Virginia Ann Bateman and Sarojini Amboo – then resorted to file a case last year against the condominium management with the Strata Housing Tribunal.
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The main aim was to stop the management from allowing property owners to let out their units for short-term rentals.
“When I first bought the unit in 2019, I did not know that these short-term rentals did not comply with regulations.
“I was the chairman of the management corporation then and these short-term rentals started to invite problems,” said Ushadavi.
“There were issues of nuisance and vandalism caused by guests.
“Many owners then had come to me asking for a solution, but I also had to consider the owners who were letting out their units for short-term rentals as this was a form of income for them,” she added.
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“We then decided to allow short-term rental accommodation to continue but (to) limit the facilities such as the swimming pool to residents only.
“However, the pressure on me from committee members, who were short-term rental accommodation owners, was unbecoming and I quit as the chairman.
“I then decided to take this issue up personally as an owner and had two of my neighbours join in,” said Ushadavi.
“I went to the Land Office and the Port Dickson City Council but was told there were no provisions on the operation or barring of short-term rental accommodation in stratified properties to operate.
“I then filed a case with the Strata Housing Tribunal and they awarded us our claim to bar short-term rental accommodation in this condominium. I have passed on the tribunal award to the management body.”
She added that her condominium building is a place for families and residents living as a community, that it is not right to run short-term rental accommodation, with strangers coming and going and sharing the facilities, for security and safety reasons.
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“I decided to do this as a precedent must be set. My advice to the public is not to buy stratified properties blindly.
“Do your homework and check with the Local Government Development Ministry,” Ushadavi said.
Meanwhile, a condominium owner, who only wanted to be known as Ana, lets out her unit in nearby Teluk Kemang, saying that she feels that it is “not right” for authorities to completely bar short-term rental accommodation.
“I have been letting out my unit on Airbnb for a few years now and it pays the bank instalment. This is my second property and long-term tenants are hard to find in condominiums by the beach as most come as holidaymakers,” said Ana, who lives in Kuala Lumpur.
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“Not all (short-term rental) tenants are troublemakers ... I have had very good ones.
“I make sure that they are well-informed of the house rules before they stay there.
“I also make it a point to have a neighbour report to me should they be holding parties and such,” she added.
In Penang, after short-term rental visitors were deemed to have caused disturbances to residential communities in 2022, it was decided that if unit owners want to rent their units out to guests or turn them into short-term rental units, 75% of the residents in the said community must first agree to it.
“An annual general meeting must be chaired by the JMB or MC and three quarter of residents in that particular building must be agreeable to the idea.
“Otherwise, owners are not allowed to turn their units into short-term rental units,” said Penang state local government committee chairman Jagdeep Singh Deo in May last year.
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He had then pointed out that the joint management body (JMB) or management committee (MC) can issue a compound to the owner of the unit in the building if the individual insists on continuing the short-term rental accommodation even after residents do not allow it.
“Under the Strata Management Act 2013, the JMB and MC can enact their own by-law to compound the owner RM200 each time the unit is rented out for a short-term stay.
“If the JMB and MC have issued compounds to the unit owner and the compounds are not paid or if there are further disputes, the issue can be referred to a tribunal,” Jagdeep was quoted as saying then.
