‘We were cheated’: Residents slam short-term letting bid

Residents have fired back after a bid was launched to permanently allow hotel-style letting at units in a Maroochydore apartment complex.

Heather Palmer, Steven Brough and Howard Malyon are opposing an application to change their apartment building into short-term accomodation.

Residents and apartment owners in a new high-rise building are furious a bid has been launched to continue the hotel-style use.

The call comes after The Rhythm on Beach was caught out breaching short-term letting restrictions.

Sunshine Coast company Direct Hotels has been co-ordinating short-term letting at The Rhythm on Beach building in Maroochydore since April last year.

Sunshine Coast Council issued a show cause notice in September to the building's body corporate highlighting a condition of the building's 2016 development approval that said it was not to be used for short-term letting.

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Unit owner and body corporate member Howard Malyon said residents had informed the council of the breach.

"The previous … body corporate made the discovery that the building was not classified for short-term leasing in any form or shape and he asked council what they could do about that and the next thing we knew we got served the show cause notice," he said.

"It wasn't us that conducted any of this.

"It was all done by a letting agent, which was Direct Hotels or Direct Rentals as they call themselves.

"We've asked them to cease and desist, which we got told no, it's not happening. Don't even think about it. Forget it."

In response to the notice, Direct Rentals has applied with the council to turn 23 units in the 72-unit building into short-term accommodation.

Direct Rentals director Adam Thomas said his company obtained an extension from the council to lodge the application in January.

Mr Thomas said the extension was to allow time for all residents to vote on the matter, however he said the building cancelled the general meeting so Direct Rentals was forced to lodge the documents to stay compliant.

Some apartments in The Rhythm on Beach in Maroochydore have been used for short-term accommodation letting.

Unit owners, residents and the body corporate have had several conversations to try and work through their concerns with short-term letting with Direct Rentals.

"We were told 'You have to live with it, because that's what they're doing. That's their business model'," Mr Malyon said.

"The owners absolutely detested it and I don't even mean owners that live there, I mean owners that don't live there but have their own property there that they use for holiday weekends they put into long term rents.

"They are dead set against (it)."

Mr Thomas said he believed they had worked through the concerns but that not all requests were reasonable.

"In any community complex, there's a cross section of people with differing views and objectives," he said.

"This building is located in a precinct that allows for the residential use that 23 owners have chosen to adopt."

The Rhythm on Beach residents Howard and Teresa Malyon, Heather Palmer, Marcia and Debbie Gill say they will fight a development application to turn their apartment complex into a short-term accommodation provider.

Unit owner Heather Palmer has been in the building since the day it opened.

Originally from Sydney, Ms Palmer purchased two apartments off the plan and said while owners were aware there would be some holiday letting they were never informed it would be short-term stays.

"The one (and) two night stays cause disruption to the building," she said

"My interpretation was that be a minimum of a week, like in an apartment.

"There's no other facilities here to warrant it to be what they classify as a hotel and it's not built for that."

She said attempts to reclassify the building were underhanded.

"We all bought in here as residents and that's what it was classified as a residential building."

Mr Thomas said Direct Rentals had bought a unit in the building as well as the on-site management rights.

He said that detail was in a disclosure document, which included an excerpt showing the use for holiday let as an acceptable residential use.

"How it could be perceived as underhanded when all owners who bought their units were given the same disclosure document I can't understand," he said.

"I can tell you I was not aware that this building required a code assessable change of use, which the owners have since complied with."

Mr Malyon said he felt "100 per cent cheated".

"Us as homeowners could be end up losing and this is where we have invested our money and we could end up losing value to our property." 

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