Holiday rental owners fighting Noosa council in court

A Queensland holiday home owner is fighting the local council in court over “onerous” conditions it placed on her approval to rent out her house to short-stayers. And she’s not the only one.

The Noosa property owned by Laetitia St Baker.

A holiday home owner is fighting the local council in the Planning and Environment Court over “onerous” conditions it placed on her approval to rent out her house to short-stayers in a Queensland town well known as a playground for the wealthy.

Laetitia St Baker, a Brisbane business coach from Auchenflower, has rented her $1m riverfront home on Noosa’s North Shore for seven years without any problems, she states in court documents.

The home is listed online for rental as “Rivers Edge Retreat” on the Airbnb website - for $500 a night in February - and other sites, internet searches show.

On February 1 last year, Noosa Shire Council began its crackdown on short-stay letting, forcing owners who were already renting their homes to holiday-makers to reapply for approval for short-stay letting.

The Noosa property has a private jetty.

Under the new laws, the contact person for the home must respond to complaints within 30 minutes of being called by the complaints hotline.

Annual renewal of the approval is required while the short-stay letting continues and properties must display an “approval notice” at the front of the house, including the 24/7 complaints hotline number and approval number.

Laetitia St Baker is the owner of a short-term rental home on Noosa’s North Shore. Photo: Facebook

Ms St Baker reapplied to Noosa Shire Council for approval for the home in June, and got the green light on November 16 last year, but council put 26 conditions on the approval, court documents state.

The conditions include forcing Ms Baker, or her delegate, to respond or resolve neighbour complaints within 30 minutes and be available 24 hours a day, or risk losing their council approval.

Ms St Baker states in her notice of appeal that she wants the court to “delete” the “impugned conditions", arguing they are “not reasonably necessary to ensure that the operation and management of the short-stay letting activity will be adequate to protect public health, safety and amenity and prevent environmental harm”.

“The appellant has operated the premises including for short-stay accommodation for the past seven years without complaint or impacts on the adjoining residents,” the appeal notice states.

“No known complaints or issues have been raised during the history of the premises use,” the court documents state.

She submits that some complaints about aggressive guest behaviour, noise, parking or nuisance may be better resolved by “council officers or police” rather than owners.

“The lack of certainty in the conditions means they can be easily breached,” the appeal states.

Ms St Baker states that prior to the new rules, her three-bedroom home had 15 bookings per year for each of 2018 and 2019, court documents state.

The home can accommodate 16 people, court documents state.

It has a private jetty and is accessible by ferry from crossing the Noosa River.

Ms St Baker declined to comment when approached by The Courier-Mail.

No date has been set to hear her case.

The owners of this Sunshine Beach duplex rented out for short-stay letting have also launched a legal stoush.

In a separate legal stoush, a company owned by Brisbane accountancy firm executive Bernard Curran and his wife, from Brisbane’s Red Hill, has filed an appeal in the same court in a bid to get council approval to rent out their $2.7m Sunshine Beach holiday duplex to short-stay tenants.

Court documents filed in the Planning and Environment Court in Maroochydore by Escanaba Pty Ltd state that Noosa Shire Council refused their application for short-stay approval on April 27, 2022, and then the council confirmed its original decision on review on June 7.

The home, which they have named “Luxury Ocean Villa”, has been used for short-term accommodation “since the construction of the premises”, the notice of appeal states.

Mr Curran states in his affidavit that the home has been let short-term from 2018 to 2022.

The case is set for hearing on February 17.

Mr Curran did not respond to requests for comment.