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Your House, Your Home – Airbnb and short-term rentals: What does the law say? · Drive with John Perlman

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Drive home with John Perlman on 702.
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: Let's walk the talk.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Right, let's get into that Airbnb story. This is our
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: regular Thursday feature. We call it Your House, Your Home.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: What does the law actually say about Airbnb and other
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: kinds of short-term rentals, Lekker Slab, AfriStay, Booking.com, and there
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: are probably others as well. besides that I haven't mentioned.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: My guest is Alex Peral, who joins us from Fluxman's Attorneys,
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: where he is a director. Alex, welcome and thanks very
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: much for giving us your time. Is it pretty much
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  Speaker 1: down to every complex, every body, corporate, you can say, yes,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: we allow it, no, we don't? Or do people have
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  Speaker 1: rights that go beyond whatever the collective agrees on?
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: Afternoon, John. Thanks for having me and thanks for your
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: listeners for having me. The reality is there's no blanket
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: law prohibiting short-term rentals. It is very much subject to
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: what the rules of each estate, whether it's a complex,
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: a golf estate, apartments, say. It's all governed by those rules.
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  Speaker 1: I remember, well, I've been involved in this on a
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  Speaker 1: couple of occasions. And there seem to be two arguments.
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  Speaker 1: The one, and I think they're both valid. The one
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  Speaker 1: is people saying, look, we don't want strangers in our building.
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  Speaker 1: We don't want people having access to either the complex
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: or the building. You know, life is difficult enough and
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  Speaker 1: insecure enough as it is. On the other hand, there
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: are people who are saying, hang on a bit, I
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  Speaker 1: have a right to earn Revenue from all of my
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: assets and property is one of them. I mean, is
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: this ever going to end up, for example, in the
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: constitutional court? Or is that unlikely?
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: Well, it's definitely something that could end up. There is
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: no definitive answer to that just yet. However, what I
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: would suggest is for any prospective buyers, because as you
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  Speaker 2: correctly pointed out, when you acquire ownership into a property
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: of such nature, you're ultimately joining a community. You're buying
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: into the community. So it's a very difficult situation where
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: you have neighbors who perhaps don't want short-term leases, and
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: then you've got prospective investors that are only looking to
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: acquire properties for that very purpose. So it's definitely something
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: to look out for in the future. It's going to
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  Speaker 2: be interesting times, especially when Sectional title schemes and holiday resorts,
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  Speaker 2: this is where a lot of people make their money from. Yeah.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: I assume it's found its way into the courts already.
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  Speaker 1: Are there interesting precedents that are suggesting the way judges
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: are thinking about this?
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  Speaker 2: It's a good question. There is indeed a court case.
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  Speaker 2: And the court ruled in that particular case that when
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: a sectional title changes its rules to prohibit short-term leases...
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  Speaker 2: The court did not consider that it unlawfully violated private
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: ownership rights. So it allowed for short-term leases to be prohibited.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: The court ruled that a short-term lease would be considered
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: anything from six months or less. So that is definitely
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: something that needs to be looked at. And again, as
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  Speaker 2: I mentioned in the beginning, it's not set in stone
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  Speaker 2: when generally a lot of the body corporate rules also
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  Speaker 2: allow for specific consent to be obtained from the body
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  Speaker 2: corporate or the homeowners association. So it's not a definitive,
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  Speaker 2: even if it's in the rules. It's all subject to negotiation,
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  Speaker 2: how owners deal with the body corporates and going forward
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  Speaker 2: what can be implemented in these estates to allow for
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  Speaker 2: such short-term leases if it is a case that that's
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: where the main attraction comes to that complex or that estate.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: I said I've observed this from close quarters in a
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  Speaker 1: couple of instances. I mean, in one of them, there
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  Speaker 1: was agreement, there was a vote of owners, I think 75%
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: was required, but it was under very, very specific conditions
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: that short-term rentals are allowed, but they need to follow
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  Speaker 1: a very particular set of rules. Is that perhaps the
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: sweet spot, a way to go, or Do you think
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  Speaker 1: there's always just going to be some people who want
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: it and some who don't and the majority rules? No, absolutely.
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  Speaker 2: I think you're 100% correct in that point. The clearer
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  Speaker 2: the rules are, the easier it is for everyone to
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  Speaker 2: understand what the rules are. So it's one of those
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  Speaker 2: situations where the members have to sit together. As you mentioned, 75%
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: have to vote in favor of any prohibition or any
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: change to the rule. And it's subject to debate. That's
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: the purpose of having AGMs, special general meetings. The committee
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: itself could never do that on its own.
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  Speaker 1: They would have to involve everyone else. Thank you. Well,
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  Speaker 1: it's a very interesting road. Every complex, I'm sure, at
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: some point is going to have to walk it. That
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  Speaker 1: was Alex Peral, who's the director at Fluxman's Attorneys. And
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  Speaker 1: if you've had experience of that or have a strong view,
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: drop us a note 072-702-1702.