VCAT orders Malvern East woman to shut down illegal Airbnb house
It appears a quiet, well-kept family home on a leafy Malvern East street. But a uni student landlord who crammed up to 18 Airbnb guests inside this property has been forced to evict them all, after it was found to be “a danger to life, safety and health.”
Inner East
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A university student illegally running a Stonnington boarding house has been ordered to shut it down and clear out her guests.
Yan Nan Xu had been leasing out sections of the Malvern East house she owned with her parents as separate apartments to Airbnb guests since 2018.
VCAT heard the original two-bedroom house was extended with Stonnington Council’s permission in 2017, and online listings for the property on short-stay rental accommodation website Airbnb noted a two-bedroom house, a two-bedroom apartment, and three studio apartments were available for lease.
Up to 18 guests were accommodated on the site, and in her profile Ms Xu described herself as a “university student trying to be a great host on Airbnb” who “hope(d) to provide a comfortable home away from home” for guests.
But the tribunal heard neighbours felt the boarding house and its many guests damanged the area’s amenity and caused parking problems.
Plans of the property’s layout showed each dwelling within the single residential home was equipped with a kitchen, bathroom and beds.
And tribunal member Carol Daicic said this was a deciding factor in her decision to classify Ms Xu’s property as being improperly used for group accommodation, or a cluster of dwellings on one site, without the required permits.
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The council also noted the property’s smoke detectors were initially not compliant for what the house was being used for and was “a danger to life, safety and (the) health of guests”.
Ms Xu tried to argue that as a rooming house, not group accommodation, it did not require a council permit to lease rooms to guests.
She also told the tribunal some of the people staying at the property were family and long- term tenants.
But in October Ms Daicic upheld the council’s application for an enforcement order to compel Ms Xu to stop using the property for group accommodation and gave her a deadline of this month to vacate the guests.