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Travel Law
What happens to your serviced apartment rents when the manager goes broke? Owning a serviced apartment takes away many of the tenancy problems of owning an investment apartment. Amongst the advantages are an experienced manager and the higher rents that can be obtained for short-stay accommodation. What could possibly go wrong, except for the monthly distribution being late? What could go wrong is that the manager goes broke. This happened to the owners of the 242 serviced apartments in Ruby Apartments at Surfers Paradise on 1 August 2019, when receivers were appointed to the manager (a receiver is like a mortgagee in possession). As the court cases which followed demonstrated, the rents were preserved in a trust account. But the receiver and others were allowed to deduct their expenses, meaning that the owners received only 42.27% of the rents, not 80% or more. Fortunately, this situation continued for only 3 months until the management rights were sold. For more information, click on my article How $1.8 m of letting income was distributed by the receiver of a serviced apartment manager
The ill-fated White Island volcano tour The White Island volcano tour in New Zealand offered an incredible experience with more than a hint of danger - “you'll see the likes of roaring steam vents and ash-soaked ground as well as deposits of vivid yellow sulphur”. Two of the badly burnt survivors if the ill-fated tour to the island on 9 December 2019 were American, so they sued Royal Caribbean, the cruise line, in Florida where they could expect to receive a sympathetic jury trial and to be awarded punitive damages. But Royal Caribbean has other plans. It wants to force the all 25 survivors and relatives of the 22 dead to sue in New South Wales, where there are no jury trials and no punitive damages. Royal Caribbean may not be liable at all given that they will use the 'obvious risk' defence to avoid liability. This article looks at the current status of both legal proceedings.
How do ski jet accidents happen? A survey of five court decisions reveals that 3 were collisions, 1 was falling off and 1 was a foot amputated by a tow rope. The Court awarded compensation for negligence in 4 cases. For more, click on my article. Making your liability waiver effective You would all agree that skydiving is a high risk activity. And that if your business is skydive jumps for the public, you would agree that you need the best risk warning and liability waiver money can buy to cover your legal liability for personal injury? Skydive Australia did that. Its liability waiver was first rate. But in a recent Supreme Court case, the judge found this was not enough. The reason was that Skydive did not do enough to make the jumper aware of the liability waiver. As a result, Skydive could not rely upon it when sued for an injury - a broken spine caused by a hard landing. Fortunately for Skydive, and unfortunately for the jumper, the judge found that Skydive was not negligent because it had followed all the correct procedures. It shows the importance of taking out personal accident insurance when indulging in high risk activities like skydiving. For more, click on my article.
If you injure yourself on holidays the fine print might take away your claim Walking along a jetty, swimming at a beach or in a pool, snow and surf skiing, boating, dolphin and whale watching, and going on theme park rides are all enjoyable holiday activities. No one gives a thought about suffering a serious injury, but injuries happen every day. And when they do, apart from the pain and suffering there are hospital, medical and physio expenses, there is time off work and the cost of carers and helpers. Who pays for these? Or more to the point, can you recover these expenses and costs from the owner of the place, such as the Council, or the operator of the activity? The first answer lies in the Civil Liability Laws. The second answer lies in the fine print that the Laws allow the owner or operator to exclude liability. The image at the top is the new sign Coffs Harbour Council has placed at the entry to its famous jetty which contains many warnings. The sign was put up after the Council lost a NSW Court of Appeal case where it was ordered to pay more than $500,000 because its previous sign was not clear enough. That explains the legalese in the wording! But in most cases, the sign or warning is clear enough and the Council or operator is not liable. For my case summary on the Coffs Harbour Jetty case click
Do warning signs take away rights? Do you look at the warning signs at a beach, park or boat jetty and wonder if the signs actually protect against personal injury claims? The answer could be yes! See case study#1 boat ramps
If you are looking a refund for an airfare, watch out for the cancellation fee Nobody reads a travel agent's terms and conditions ... until they cancel a flight and ask for a refund. Travellers quickly discover that lurking in the fine print are cancellation fees. Not one but two sets of cancellation fees - the first, the airline's cancellation fees, the second the travel agent's cancellation fees. What fees do they charge? The Airlines: Qantas and Emirates charge a $375 per fare if the passenger cancels. If the airline cancels a flight and cannot offer suitable alternative arrangements, then it does not charge a cancellation fee if the cancellation is within its control. The Travel Agents: Flight Centre and Helloworld have exactly the same cancellation fee policy: Cancellations to International bookings (excluding Trans-Tasman bookings) will incur a fee of $300 per passenger per booking in addition to supplier fees (and credit card fees). The fee is charged regardless of whether it is the passenger or the supplier (i.e. the airline) who cancels. The coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic has introduced a new factor. That is, travel bans and border closures have resulted in flight cancellations outside of the control of both the passenger and the airline. As a result of Government and consumer pressure, most airlines have dropped (waived) their cancellation fee. In the US, the Department of Transport has ordered airlines not to charge a cancellation fee for flights cancelled because of travel bans and border closures. In Australia, Qantas, Emirates and other airlines have done the same. But what about the travel agents? Flight Centre insisted upon charging its cancellation fee of $300 until 2 May 2020, when overwhelming pressure from the public and the Australian Consumer watchdog, the ACCC, resulted in Flight Centre waiving its cancellation fee for flights cancelled because of travel bans and border closures. Flight Centre will now provide full refunds of airfares. For more information click on my article ACCC pressures Flight Centre to waive cancellation fees on some fare refunds.
For COVID-19 travel refunds, the ACCC sits on the fence The ACCC - the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission - is the Australian Consumer Law watchdog. The ACCC provides the latest information on consumer rights, travel and event cancellations in relation to COVID-19 on its website with a special Q&A section: My flight, tour or cruise has been cancelled. Am I entitled to a refund? Allowing for the fact that it is impossible to lay down general rules for an industry as diverse as the travel industry - from flights, cruises, day trips, tours, resorts, hotels and sports packages - the rules the ACCC lays down are vague and contradictory. For example:
Allow me to answer the question Am I entitled to a refund? in this way:
For more details on refunds for COVID-19 travel cancellations, click on my article My flight, tour or cruise has been cancelled because of COVID-19 travel restrictions. Am I entitled to a refund?
Do airline cancellation fees and charge fees annoy you? Help is on its way. If you want to cancel your flight, for whatever reason, you pay a cancellation fee. Is a fee of 60% of the fare a fair fee if the cancellation is more than one month before the flight? If you want to change to another flight, or want change your booking, you pay a change fee. Is a fee of $80 fair if you want to change to another flight which had spare seats? If the airline cancels your flight, can you ask for cancellation compensation despite the prominent 'no refunds' notice? Is paid overnight accommodation and meals enough compensation if the cancellation was the airline's fault? The good news is that the consumer law watchdog (the ACCC) is about to change the way airlines charge you excessive cancellation and change fees if you want to change your mind about a flight. The ACCC also wants airlines to change their 'no refunds' notices, and to give more compensation to passengers where the airline has cancelled the flight due to the airline's fault. The ACCC has outlined its position in a Report - Airlines: Terms and Conditions - and will be engaging with airlines operating in Australia to change their terms and conditions. It may even bring some test cases to the courts on behalf of passengers. For more information on the report, and to see 6 examples out of 1,400 complaints the ACCC has received in the past 2 years, click - Memo to Airlines: It's time to review refund policies, cancellation and change fees to comply with the Australian Consumer Law There are some travel professionals who still think that they can book an international flight, and leave it to the customer to look after the visa requirements. They do this even though as travel professionals, they know that without a valid visa the customer will be denied boarding on the flight they have booked. For more details See Full Article
Australian domestic airlines agree to
an ‘opt in’ model for extra charges
DOES Airbnb GIVE BOUTIQUE HOTELS AND
B&Bs A COMPETITIVE EDGE?
These services are increasing lodging occupancy and
pricing power for small accommodation providers. IS LUNCH INCLUDED IN MY ALL INCLUSIVE TOUR PRICE? The words All-inclusive are a powerful marketing tool which is used by many tour operators, accommodation providers and cruise lines. So what does a traveller think when they read this in a brochure which is labelled All-Inclusive : WHAT'S INCLUDED? Coach travel throughout ... Six nights dinner, bed and continental breakfast at the Hotel ... Is lunch included? According to a ruling by the UK Advertising Standards Authority, the traveller was entitled to expect that lunch was included because that was the overall impression given by the description. The lesson is that to avoid giving a misleading impression, if lunch is not included then it needs to be specifically stated - Lunch is not included. If nothing is mentioned about lunch then it is misleading to not include lunch. For more details See Full Article
ARE YOU A TARGET FOR CONSUMER CLAIMS?
WHAT DO YOU REALLY KNOW ABOUT TRAVEL INSURANCE? See Travel Insurance – An Overview
Insurance; Pitfalls; Visas; Suitablility; Availablility
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