OC to take short-stay owners to VCAT

The Watergate Owners Corporation (OC) is taking owners of short-stay apartments in its building to VCAT, over alleged breaches of OC rules.

Although the short-stay case between the City of Melbourne and Docklands Executive Apartment operator Paul Salter continues at the Building Appeals Board (BAB), the OC is not content to wait on the outcome of the case.

It has been issuing breach notices to owners of apartments used for short-term accommodation throughout the year and last month filed VCAT applications against nine apartment owners.

All nine apartments are managed by Docklands Executive Apartments.

Examples of alleged breaches recorded by the OC include:

Using apartments for short-term letting in contravention of OC rules regarding minimum stays;

Using apartments for short-term letting in contravention of OC rules regarding commercial use of apartments; and

Movement of items, such as cleaning supplies, likely to cause damage or obstruction through the common property without notifying the building manager.

While the Watergate OC was adjoined with council during the original BAB hearing it was not a part of the Supreme Court or Court of Appeals cases and will not be adjoined to the case currently before the BAB.

Watergate OC chairperson Barbara Francis said VCAT action was the only option available, outside the BAB.

“This is what we can do as a building in our own right,” Ms Francis said.

“We have these tools available to us and we don’t know how the BAB hearings are going to pan out,” she said.

She said one of the outcomes of the first BAB hearing, in 2012, was that the major operator, Grand Harbour Accommodation, ceased operating.

She said since then, the remaining operator, Mr Salter, had increased from three apartments to nine.

When Docklands News spoke with Mr Salter he said owners had not yet received notification of the VCAT action and declined to comment until he had received official documentation.

The original three apartments have been the focus of the Building Appeals Board hearings and subsequent Supreme Court and Court of Appeals hearings.

The BAB case began in 2012, when Mr Salter appealed building orders issued to owners of short-stay apartments by council in 2011.

Under the Building Code of Australia, Watergate is classified as a Class 2 building.  

The orders required owners to comply with building regulations applicable to a Class 3 building (akin to a hotel or boarding house) or to cease trading.

In the original case, the BAB panel found in favour of council and upheld the building orders, but in 2013 Mr Salter successfully appealed the decision at the Supreme Court, which remitted the case back to the BAB to be reheard.

Before it could return, council unsuccessfully appealed the decision at the Court of Appeals, which also remitted it to the BAB.

Having convened for directions hearing and summary hearings earlier this year, the BAB is scheduled to rehear the case on October 23 and 24.