how do you stop subletting?

[Fangyuan0]

Hi Guys

I recently had nightmare tenant he pretend to rent out my house on assured shorthold tenancy and claim he is single parent with one child. What I discovered back in March is in fact he is subletting since August 2023 on Airbnb and is running this as full time business opportunity and possibly never lived there for a day.

And now he has stopped paying rent since March 2024 and I finally manage to get the possession order from the court back in September 2024.

then he refused to 'move out' on the date of the possession order, meaning I will now need to get warrant from the court and then bailiff to take possession of the property that he is not even lived in. Because of the slow court system in the UK, it will take at least 20 weeks for this process. In the meantime I can see on Airbnb he is happily generating revenues and taking guests while I need to pay mortgages to my bank.

I have contact the Airbnb support to try to take down the listing with my possession order from the court, however Airbnb is refusing to help, I am not even asking Airbnb to be an arbitrator or verify private contract terms, I have present them with the orders from the court clearly stating that this tenant has to go by x date and the x date has passed.

I am running out of idea now, so this tenant gets to make one year worth of Airbnb listing revenue and not paying a penny to the landlord, and the landlord is subject to mortgage payment at the bank. how can this be fair? what's to stop him from doing the same tactics by just massively ramping up this loophole and exploit more landlords?

Airbnb is not going to do anything, he can simply earns crazy amount of money just by keep sign up to lots of properties and just simply don't pay any rent while keep earning from the platform. this is free money no?

[Joan2709]

@Fangyuan0 

Bummer....

Ok...I'm assuming you got references and employment information before signing a lease with him. Assuming he is even working now, (maybe he is just living off the Airbnb money he is collecting fraudulently), can you contact his employer and report his fraud activity? Does he have any professional licenses that you can report to the licensing entity? Is this person a UK citizen or only temporarily in the country? I think you know where I'm going here.

[Fangyuan0]

This guy is pro, he clearly knows what he is doing, the listing is not under his name. It was done by third party company and there are over 40+ properties listed under this company. I think he already started this mass operation to scam landlords. And to your point he is from Nordic country that you won’t see it coming. And unfortunately he is self employed now and there is nothing to report to. Apart from point at figure that he may or may not pay the correct tax to HMRC which I have reported. But nothing to stop this guy from immediate action 

[Joan2709]

@Fangyuan0 

Aha....I think you may have something there. Nothing gets more attention from the government than possible tax evasion. The managment company must be licensed in some fashion? I would explore that angle and report them to whatever agency oversees housing and/or business licensing. I would pursue the tax angle as well. Those Hosts in the UK would have a better idea on how to report that.

[Helen3]

Have you contacted the management company he is a booking through and reported him @Fangyuan0 

[Joan2709]

@Helen3 

Good idea! The only issue is if he actually setup the management company to perpetrate the fraud, that would give him a heads up. Maybe contact local licensing authority for the company instead and report the fraud that way? 

[Helen3]

The guy who is illegally sub letting already knows as @Fangyuan0 has taken him to court to evict him 😀

we don't have licensing authorities for STR management companies unless in an area with STR restrictions. 

[Fangyuan0]

Yes, In fact the very first time we contacted Airbnb support, the redirected my request to this management company, but they simply ignored the request

[Helen3]

Thanks for the update @Fangyuan0 - in terms of references I agree if you checked 12 months bank statements for rent payments and took up employment references and confirmation of salary - something many landlord don't (they just do basic referencing) then it's pretty surprising that a tenant who's in work and paid his last tenancy on time turns out to be a scammer.

Did Airbnb respond when you took my earlier advice and posted social publicly across all their media channels. This is the most likely way to get them to take action @Quincy can you help too? 

[Fangyuan0]

I am very surprised too. I have tried to post on X last night and hopefully they would respond. It’s very straightforward case, I am not even asking them to make judgment on the private contract terms, there is court order which I find it hard to believe that Airbnb is  not going to take any action.

Its very stressful situation that I am still 20 weeks + from taking back my property and this scammer is profiting from 

[Helen3]

As I said post on all their social media channels not just Twitter @Fangyuan0 

[Fangyuan0]

Thanks! I am not a big social media user and there is limited channel that I am aware, in fact if not this tenant I won’t even know that there is this community in Airbnb that I can seek help. 

[Helen3]

Have you contacted the employer that you took up references with @Fangyuan0 ? 

is your solicitor taking your tenant to court for rent arrears and the illegal income they earned from sub letting ?

[Fangyuan0]

Sadly, this employer went into admission last year not long after he became our tenant. He has since set up his own company, and from the company house website, I can see he is doing pretty well with his company account statement. 

The possession order comes with a money order, but the solicitor can only take action to enforce the money order on the day he officially moves out.(Calculate the additional rent arrears incurred).

However, the point is that the daily rate on this money order(a little over £100 per night) is much less than he can earn from Airbnb. He charges £250 on average per night and up to £300+ in December.

I can see no reason he would return this property, given the above number. The only way I can see this play out is Airbnb stopping his listing, and he then needs to consider giving up and paying. 

And to your point on the illegal income he earned from subletting, that's an entirely different matter, which will need a different solicitor to fill different lawsuits.  I am seriously considering this. However, again, the court system in London is so overwhelmed it would take 6 weeks + to schedule a hearing and then it is the Christmas holiday, and no one is working during xmas 😞 

[Fangyuan0]

As a quick update, after raising this issue on social media (Twitter), as suggested by @Helen3, I finally got someone to contact me through email; however is like an automated message, below is what he responded after I sent over my possession order from the court: 

All users, by agreeing to our Terms of Service and when listing a property, agree that they have all rights to the accommodations. Regrettably, we are unable to verify legal ownership documentation including but not limited to mortgages, deed of trusts, grant/warranty/quit claim deeds, leases/rental agreements, By-laws, etc.

This is outrageous, so basically, it doesn't matter what kind of documents you send over to Airbnb; they can use this same paragraph, even court order is not enough. It looks like the only way this is going to work is to force Airbnb into some sort of lawsuits