I own a $3 million dollar home in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles. I recently moved out of state and signed a three-year lease with a tenant. My lease specifies that subletting is illegal and specially calls out sites like Airbnb for subletting purposes.
In December of 2018, I discovered that my tenant moved out of my property and started subletting the home on Airbnb (my neighborhood watch found the Airbnb ad and informed me). The police have been called multiple times to my property due to large parties and neighborhood disturbances.
I have reported the listing of my property to Airbnb as an illegal sublet and also have flagged the host. I received an email from Airbnb stating that there is nothing that they can do as the host agreed to the terms and conditions of having full authority/ownership to rent out the property.
What? Nothing you can do, Airbnb? They’re certainly making a boat load of money off an illegal sublet. I’m sure that’s why they won’t shut this ad/person down. I now am represented by a very large legal firm in Los Angeles, we are going through the eviction process with this tenant. The ad is still up and my “soon to be ex-tenant” still continues to rent the house.
This is a huge liability to me if someone gets hurt, my insurance will not cover accidents that occur while subletting. I would like to start a class action lawsuit against Airbnb for not vetting out hosts for ownership or authorization that they can rent out properties on the website. This is completely unacceptable and the only thing I can do is hire a very expensive attorney to remedy this situation. Who’s with me?
I am going through this currently. I have an eviction order for the tenant who is illegally subletting my property but cannot evict them due to the pandemic. Appalling that AirBNB is still allowing this.
I am IN !! I am going thru this right now! I have a tenant who is illegally sub-letting one of my condo’s. I am attempting to serve him with eviction notices, but of course he has moved out and I am having difficulty locating him. I gave him notice of an inspection and entered unit and took pictures of all the empty closets, etc…. The condo is staged like a hotel room. In the meantime I have strangers accessing my unit and privately owned development. Police do nothing, and in fact threatened to arrest me when I had changed the locks after inspection and discovery of what was happening. Police forced me to provide a key to tenant and his scumbag friend who was literally listed as the HOST on Airbnb – It IS CRAZY!! I have hired an attorney and contacted the Atty General., etc, etc… Airbnb has STILL NOT responded to me ! Class Action…Let’s Go !!
Thanks for everyone’s comments on this. I submitted a copy of the “Unlawful Detainer” lawsuit against the Airbnb host and they finally pulled his profile down and canceled all the rentals. I basically had to inform Airbnb that I would not be liable for any lawsuits brought against them, from Airbnb renters, when the Los Angeles County Sheriff arrived onsite to evict persons still occupying the house. Unfortunately the very next day, a new host, named Colleen, had listed the property for rent on Airbnb. This has been Very Very frustrating ….and I am amazed that this can even happen. The good news is that my trial date is set for April 2nd 2019, and I should be able to get the physical eviction in motion soon.
Last week I experienced the worst night ever at an Airbnb in Eagle Rock. The host almost certainly was not the owner and probably occupying the property illegally. It all ended with the police helping me get safely out of the house about midnight. I’ll spare you the details here, but if you are starting a class action lawsuit I’d like to be part of it.
I’m with you. I also thinking of bringing class action lawsuit against AirBnB for fraud with security deposits
I’m an Ex Airbnb employee and while I worked there the policy was always that if a host was reported to have not sought permission from a home owner to use a property it would be immediately suspended until they can provide documentation showing that they are legally entitled to.
I would recommend trying again for an agent who isn’t too lazy to do their job.
You should sue both
Airbnb should have the same takedown policy as Cafepress or Redbubble has for copyrighted material : when an affidavit is submitted stating that property is being listed without the actual owner’s permission Airbnb should immediately delist the property
There needs to be a landlord class action brought against Airbnb for illegal subletting. Airbnb is facilitating illegal subletting and acting as a broker.
I am in it and going through this right now as well. A tenant who has not paid me since March and owes me over $11,000 is using Airbnb to sublet my property and pocketing thousands of dollars a month. airbnb will do nothing.
You should sue your tenant NOT Airbnb:)
I’m in and currently experiencing this with my tenant. She has not paid rent, but is illegally subletting my house on Airbnb. Too make matters worse, she filed for chapter 13 bankruptcy and the court issued a 30-day stay from any contact or collecting rent.
I’ve seen these. Some big homes under Kylie or katia. She and or Adem. They have a few listings.