Page 5630 - Week 13 - Thursday, 17 November 2011
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The Act applies to the owners of hotels and motels (known under the common law as ‘innkeepers’). It states the common law position (namely, strict liability imposed on a common law innkeeper for failing to safeguard property of the innkeeper’s guests) and makes provision for a hotel or motel owner to limit the liability by giving certain notice to the guest and providing safe custody facilities.
(c) GST requirements are a matter for the Commonwealth.
(d) If liquor is being sold from short-term furnished accommodation rentals then the Liquor Act 2010 will apply and the Office of Regulatory Services (ORS) will take action to ensure that compliance with the requirements of the Liquor Act are being met.
(e) The Independent Competition and Regulatory Commission (ICRC) regulates utilities under the Utilities Act. The Utilities Act provides for regulated prices for franchise customers in relation to electricity and water. If the customer of the utility is not a franchise customer the pricing of the utility service is left to the market. In the case of short-term furnished accommodation rentals the tenant may not be the utility customer and the cost of the utility service may be included as a component in the rent.
Where the cost of supplying electricity is passed on to a tenant section 98 of the Utility Act limits the amount that can be charged.
(f) The Building Code of Australia, which is applied in the ACT through the Building Act 2004, provides for minimum energy efficiency levels in buildings.
Section 11A of the Residential Tenancies Act 1997 requires that for leased premises, an EER statement must be included if one exists for the rental property. The requirement would not apply to an agreement that is not characterised as a residential tenancies agreement, such as an occupancy agreement.
(g) i and ii
The ACT Building Act 2004 references the National Construction Code (NCC). Volumes 1 and 2 of the NCC provides for the classification of buildings. The residential component of hotels and motels are classified as class 3.
(2) (a) This is a matter for commercial decision-making by motel and hotel owners.
(b) The provisions in force in the ACT (which limit the strict liability of ‘innkeepers’) apply to both hotels and motels. These provisions, or provisions similar to them, exist in most Australian and overseas jurisdictions.
(c) This is a matter for the Commonwealth.
(d) ORS endeavours to uniformly regulate all liquor licence types bearing in mind some differing legislative requirements dependent on the licence type.
(e) As advised under (1) (e) above, the ICRC regulates utilities under the Utilities Act. The Utilities Act provides for regulated prices for franchise customers in relation to electricity and water. If the customer of the utility is not a franchise customer the pricing of the utility service is left to the market. In the case of hotels and
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