Western Australia's Strata Vote: Why a Short-Let Future Hangs on a Scheme

In a strata scheme, the by-laws decide more than the planning rules do. Reading them before you list is cheaper than reading them after a complaint.

Last updated: October 19, 2026

In Western Australia, a strata scheme's by-laws decide whether you can let a lot short term, and they're changed by a higher vote than most owners assume. Planning consent doesn't stand in for the scheme's consent. A state review of strata law is consulting until 26 November 2026, and short-term letting is one of the topics on the table.

Key Takeaways

• Three layers decide, and the scheme is the one closest to you. Planning, the scheme's by-laws, and your own lease or tenancy each carry a veto.
• A by-law is made by special resolution. That's the higher threshold, not a show of hands at a meeting.
• Planning approval doesn't substitute for scheme consent. A building can be zoned for visitors and still be closed by its own rules.
• The vote may move to day one. As reported, the review is considering a vote at occupation, with no later option to change it.
• Read the registered by-laws and the minutes. Not the sales brochure, and not the building's website.

Who actually decides in a strata scheme

Three layers sit above a short let in Western Australia, and hosts usually know one of them.

The first is planning. A local council decides what a building may be used for, and a tourism use may need its own approval. That layer is public, slow and documented.

The second is the scheme. A strata scheme is a body of the lot owners, run through its council or committee and, in most buildings, a strata manager. It makes by-laws that bind owners and occupiers, and it enforces them.

The third is your own lot: the lease you signed, the mortgage conditions, and the insurance on the unit.

The layer that surprises people is the second. A unit can sit in a building approved for tourist accommodation, held freehold, and still be closed to short letting by a by-law passed at a general meeting. The planning file won't mention it, because planning isn't where the decision sits.

That's why the reading order matters. Planning tells you what the land may do. The scheme tells you what this building does. Your lease tells you what you may do with this lot. All three have to line up before the first booking.

What a by-law can and can't prohibit

A by-law is a rule about how lots and common property are used. In most schemes it can regulate behaviour, parking, noise, waste, the appearance of a lot, and the use of shared space.

Applied to short letting, that range covers more than hosts expect. A by-law can restrict letting below a minimum stay. It can require an owner to notify the scheme before changing how a lot is used. It can vary the insurance contribution for a lot that's let short term, on the basis that the risk is different. And it can restrict the use of a lot for short-stay accommodation outright, if the wording is drafted to do that.

What it can't do is just as important.

It can't act as a planning approval, or cure a planning problem. It can't override the state legislation that gives it force. It can't bind someone the legislation doesn't make subject to it. And it can't be enforced by wishful thinking: a breach runs through a notice, a period to comply, and eventually a tribunal, and each step has to be taken properly.

There's also a drafting problem worth knowing. A by-law that says "no unreasonable noise" is hard to enforce against a rotating cast of weekend guests, because nobody can point to the measurement. A by-law that says "no letting for fewer than seven nights" is easy, because a booking either complies or it doesn't. Vague rules feel flexible and behave weakly.

So the question to ask about your building isn't whether it has by-laws. It's whether the by-law that matters is specific enough to be applied. Check the current rules with the scheme and the state authority.

The vote you'd need, and the notice

Changing by-laws takes a special resolution, the higher of the two thresholds a scheme uses. It isn't a simple majority of the people who turn up. The same consultation also covers proxy voting, which is the mechanism most votes actually turn on.

The process has a shape. A motion is drafted with the exact wording. Notice goes out to every owner within the period the legislation and the scheme's rules require. Owners vote in person or by proxy. If it passes, the by-law is registered and binds everyone, including the owners who voted against it.

Two practical details decide outcomes. The wording, because a motion amended on the night can lose the votes it was drafted to win. And the proxy count, because a building of absent investors is a building decided by whoever collects the forms.

As reported, the review is considering something more structural: owners in new apartment complexes voting on whether to allow short-term rentals as one of their first decisions after occupation, with no option to change it later. That's a proposal in a consultation, not a rule. The consultation runs from 15 October to 26 November 2026, according to the state agency running it, and anyone with an interest can make a submission.

If that proposal became law, the timing of a vote would matter as much as its threshold. A decision taken at occupation, and locked afterwards, would be made before a building has any experience of short letting at all.

Reading your scheme's rules before you list

Forget the brochure. Four documents tell you what you need, and three of them are dull.

Start with the registered by-laws. Not a summary, not the building's welcome pack — the registered text, including any amendments since the building opened. Read the sections on use of lots, minimum stay, notification and insurance.

Then the minutes of the last two general meetings. Minutes show what owners actually argued about, which by-laws were proposed and withdrawn, and whether short letting has already been raised. A building that debated a ban last year is a different risk from one that never mentioned it.

Then the management statement or the scheme's own information for buyers and owners, which sets out how the scheme is run and what the manager does.

Then your own lease and insurance schedule. A by-law permitting short letting doesn't override a lease that forbids subletting, and an insurer that hasn't been told about short-let use is a separate problem.

Read them in that order, and write one paragraph of conclusions: what's permitted, what needs notification, what needs approval, and who to ask. Date it. If a by-law changes next year, that paragraph is how you'll notice.

Keep the conclusion beside the calendar you let from. localsbnb.com holds the four connected channels — Airbnb, Booking.com, Agoda and Trip.com — in one calendar. Each channel's source rate and status sits beside the dates, so the nights you've promised match the nights the building permits.

FAQ

Can a strata scheme ban short letting outright?

It can pass a by-law that restricts short-stay use of a lot, if the wording is drafted to do that and the resolution carries, as reported. Whether a specific by-law is valid is a question for the scheme's own rules and the state legislation. Check the current rules with the scheme and the state authority.

Does planning approval cover short letting?

No. Planning and the scheme are separate gates, and a planning approval doesn't replace the scheme's consent. A building approved for tourism use can still restrict short letting through its by-laws.

How much notice does a by-law vote need?

The notice period comes from the state legislation and the scheme's own rules, and it's one of the items under review in the current consultation. Don't rely on a number you heard at another building.

The consultation closes on 26 November 2026, and the review's recommendations go to Parliament afterwards, so nothing described above is settled law. What's settled is the order of operations: read the by-laws, read the minutes, work out which vote could change either, and only then decide how the unit gets let. That order costs an afternoon. Skipping it costs a season of bookings you can't honour. When the letting itself needs a single view of the calendar, localsbnb.com is where the channels and the units already sit together.

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This article is general guidance for hosts and isn't legal, tax or insurance advice. What a strata scheme permits, how a by-law is made and what notice applies differ by scheme and change over time; confirm the current position with the scheme, its manager and the state authority before you list.