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FACT SHEET
Short Stay Accommodation Bill 2018
The Short Stay Accommodation Bill 2018 (the Bill) serves two important purposes; to ensure
everyone is playing by the rules, and, to paint a clear picture of home sharing across Tasmania.
The Bill will operate in conjunction with existing planning requirements in planning schemes and
Planning Directive No.6 – ‘Exemption and Standards for Visitor Accommodation in Planning
Schemes’ and the existing enforcement provisions available to local planning authorities under
the Land Use Planning and Approvals Act 1993.
The Bill specifically focusses on short stay accommodation operating in the residential zones
under current planning schemes aligning with the planning requirements currently in place
under Planning Directive No.6. The Bill utilises short stay accommodation booking platforms, as
a means of collecting information on premises used for short stay accommodation.
The majority of short stay accommodation providers in Tasmania utilise a booking platform for
advertising and booking purposes. Collecting better data and information from such platforms
enables compliance with the existing planning requirements and enables better understanding
of the short stay market in Tasmania.
The Bill:
requires short stay accommodation providers to supply certain information on their
property to the booking platform provider before their premises is listed on the
booking platform;
requires the booking platform provider to display on the platform the relevant planning
permit number for the property, or a statement that a planning permit is not required
or that the property otherwise has existing use rights;
requires the booking platform providers to supply information on the short stay
accommodation listed on their platforms to the Director of Building Control at the end
of each financial quarter;
includes penalties up to 50 penalty units (currently $7950) per offence for short stay
accommodation providers for not supplying the required information or for providing
false or misleading information; and
includes penalties up to 100 penalty units (currently $15,900) per offence for each
listing, with recurring penalties for non-compliance, for booking platform providers for
listing properties without receiving or displaying the relevant information, and further
penalties as outlined in the Bill if the relevant information is not supplied to the Director
of Building Control.
The Bill includes a 6 month transition period after its commencement for existing short stay
accommodation providers and booking platform providers to comply with the requirements.
The information collected will be used to ensure compliance with the planning requirements
and to assist with further policy development on short stay accommodation in Tasmania. The
information may also be used to ensure compliance with building, health and safety
requirements. Aggregated and other non-privacy sensitive information may be published on the
use and extent of short stay accommodation.
Enforcement of the Bill will be the responsibility of the Director of Building Control. Local
planning authorities will retain their role in enforcing the planning requirements under the Land
Use Planning and Approvals Act 1993. The Director of Building Control and local councils will
also retain their roles in enforcement building requirements under the Building Act 2016.
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