Listing owner error

[Robin1490]

Hi I manage a small air BnB in uk and recently discovered that my wife accidentally put her name down as listing owner while helping me to get the property online . My wife does not own the property . Does anyone have any tips or advice on how we can change it . 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Robin1490 it rather depends on the state of your marriage! You could make yourself a co host and direct all the money to you or you could just, as you are married, divert any income to your tax return. Of course it may be tax beneficial to continue with all the money going to your wife (subject to my comment on the state of your relationship). STR income is pensionable in the UK so you don't need to pay tax if you can afford not to.

[Robin1490]

Thanks for the reply , yes that’s a great idea but  unfortunately I manage the property on behalf of my father . My wife helped me to set up the listing on the air BnB app but ticked that she was the listing owner box by mistake . Two years later and obtaining super host status along with some jolly good reviews . We realise that due to taxation implications etc we will sadly have to close our account with air BnB to correct the issue , thus losing our great feedback and super host status etc etc .

[Maria23669]

Hi Robin, 

I am writing to you because I have a very similar issue, and was wondering how you handled the tax complications that you mentioned. 

I was, last year, helping my mom list her house on airbnb. As I did not know a lot about how it works, I became the listing owner and completed my tax information. After a year I received a tax assessment notice that I will need to pay taxes. My mom, being the owner of the house, has her name linked to the property registration number, and she also received all payouts on her account. She also filled in her tax identification number but is not anymore visible (we assume that only the listing owner's one is actually important..). Believing that she is the one responsible for paying the taxes has already reported the income to her tax declaration.. 

We are of course in a big distress on how to solve this big mistake. Any advice on how you handled this issue is extremely helpful. 

Thank you very very much in advance, 

Maria

[Joan2709 · Accepted solution]

@Robin1490 

Unfortunately, listings are not transferrable on Airbnb. The listing should have been setup with your Father as owner (as you discovered). 

So sorry, but you are correct; you would need to create a new listing with your Father as owner and you as Co Host. Once that is done, you can become primary host as far as guests are concerned and your Father will be shown as Co Host to guests only. Airbnb will still show your Father as owner though.

I would contact Airbnb CS and let them know the situation, as they have been suspending what they consider "duplicate" listings, and you don't want the new listing suspended as a duplicate. You will have to Delist (not remove the other listing) and block the calendar so as not to have double bookings when the new listing is created.