What you will do when host (tenant) rented a house to you and now the landlord want you to leave

[Z-2]

My daughter's friends rented a house in Seattle long term (doing internship there) for summer. The host is a tenant (lease with landlord). They reserved the house from middle of May and supposed check out middle of Aug. But now, the landlord (owner) come directly to them and told them they have to be out on July 31, otherwise, they will call the police or go to court to evict them and damage their credit. My guess is that the lease between landlord and the host will end on July 31. They asked the host about it and the host just told them he is working on it. But this really bother them. The host should know the lease not renewed long time ago (normally 60 days before to notice if renew or not). But he didn't told my daughter's friends. They contacted Airbnb, Airbnb just told them they (Airbnb) will contact host. But the thing is the host can just told the Airbnb what he told the guests (he is working on it). But the landlord is threating them to call the police, go to court,... How can that be a good living there?

[Z-2]

They don't have experience, they thought the host is the owner when they reserved the house.

[Emiel1]

@Z-2 

The Airbnb reservation is a agreement between the guests and the host.

If the host is violating rules or local laws or is acting illegally as a host (eg no permission from landlord) , then host and listing must be reported to Airbnb. The host is responsible for compensating the guests.

As it is a "long term reservation", Airbnb should shorten the reservation and refund all unused nights  + provide compensation for financial loss on a new booking (or offer another accommodation).

[Z-2]

@Emiel1 That's what they are asking for: "refund the unused days and provide compensation for financial loss on a new booking (or offer another accommodation)". They don't want to be forced out at the end and hard to find the place to live  at that point and the places could be much more expensive. But Airbnb is really slow on their services. 

[Huma0]

@Z-2 

Despite what Airbnb says in their new Aircover policy for guests, several guests have posted on the CC in the past few days saying they did not receive compensation for the financial loss of having to book more expensive compensation. Each post that I saw on this subject said that Airbnb would only refund them for the cost of the original booking.

That being said, I am guessing only guests who were refused are posting about it. Maybe there are many others that got the compensation, were happy about that and never thought to come to the CC.

[Susan990]

They need to contact Airbnb and cancel their reservation due to the property not being as represented in the listing.  Legally the renter had no right to sublease to them on AirBnb. Therefor the agreement is not legal. The question becomes the rent money to get refunded.  AirBnb has just upped the protections to guests who reserve property not properly presented so they have the upper hand to get their money back if they act pro-actively in accordance with AirBnb guidelines.

[Z-2]

@Susan990 They did contact Airbnb and airbnb said they will contact the host. Now waiting. The owner allow them to stay until July 31. Also this host seems have other rented hosted houses in Airbnb. Does Airbnb check the tenant lease  and owner permission before public listing? 

[Helen744]

@Z-2  They have no contract with the owner at all. They can leave when they are ready, and need to be in touch with Airbnb  without saying things like 'the owner will let us stay until the 31st' . that is not relevant as they did not pay the owner but maybe the ' host did'  or why would he let them stay as they are not 'tenants' . The two concepts are mixed up and if they paid Airbnb then they have a record and a short term stay , nothing else.If on the other hand they think they can stay an extra sixty days and you have advised them to, then they are mistaken, and this will only be more trouble for them, especially if they are studying. There is a big difference between a landlord feeling sorry for people and a 'right to tenancy'H

[Susan990]

Thank you for the informative back story... and No AirBnb does not require any proof of ownership or tenancy status to accept the listing to the platform.  

[Z-2]

@Huma0  Yes. They might not get that. They might have to pay more. I think it’s a lesson for those young adults. 

[Huma0]

@Z-2 

To be fair, they booked in good faith thinking the host was the owner. I would have assumed that also. Problem is that there are a lot of tenants renting out spaces illegally on Airbnb. It's a shame that hosts don't have to submit some kind of paperwork to prove they have the legal rights to do it, but I guess that would take up too many Airbnb resources and people could easily fake documentation. 

[John2406]

@Z-2  "Subletting" would appear to be more common a practice in the U.S. than in other Countries, where - unless  a tenant is given express permission within a legal document to sublet - it is illegal to have anyone else's namè(s) on the official legal Agreement/Contract 

Believe it or not, I was young once (!) and  I was more acceptable of what people said and did.

I cannot say for certain that I would have entered into a Contract without having read through its contents and had verified its legalities before signing anything, BUT assuming a Contract was provided to the tenants, then irrespective of the Landlord's own Contract  with his/her [errant] tenant, a legal Contract - either written or verbal will have been entered into by the parties, and it will be the Hosting Tenant who will be legally responsible for his/her tenants.

Hopefully the Hosting Tenant will have taken out Insurance to ensure that should an adverse situation - such as is currently happening, occurred - both s/he the Tenant/Sublessee and his/her Tenants' would all be protected, for if such a Policy was NOT entered into, the HostTenant would be 100% liable for her/his Tenants, including funding and paying for alternative accommodation for them.

In the absence of any Contract etc however, it may well be impossible to have any redress against the Host/Tenant, without taking him/her to Court.

As far as I see it,  the Host Tenant has a legal responsibility towards his/her LTR Tenants, irrespective of whether s/he was entitled or not to enter into an LTR Agreement,  but equally, if Airbnb - who brokered the payments - failed to verify that the Host Tenant  (when entering into a Contract with Airbnb) was entitled to Sublet the property, then it could be argued that the responsibility for the LTR Tenants then falls onto Airbnb to resolve.eMysolve the situation for your daughter's friends?

On a slightly different tack, maybe Airbnb should re-evaluate the legality of all LTRs where Owners of the properties  confirm or deny the existence of Subletting Agreements?

A messy situation whichever way one looks at the problem!

[Huma0]

@John2406 

I think there is some blurb somewhere in Airbnb policy where it says it is the host's responsibility to ensure they have permission to rent out the property if they don't own it. It's not like they don't know this sort of thing happens, they just don't want to be responsible for it. It's the same with local regulations. They say it's the host's responsibility to check and adhere to them. 

I kind of get why they do this. I have no idea how many listings are on Airbnb, but it's a lot! If they had to get people to check documentation for every listing, it would take a lot of resources. 

Also, while it might be more common in the US (I don't really know anything about that), it's not all that uncommon elsewhere. In the UK, it's illegal to sublet without your landlord's permission or if it's prohibited in the lease, but people still do it all the time. I remember a former colleague who was putting her flat on Airbnb. When the landlord found out and told her to stop or leave, she was totally baffled. She couldn't understand why he would have a problem with it.

[Gillian166]

I'm sure this isn't the first or last time this has happened. I'm sorry to the OP we can't be of much more help, i'd be scrambling to find a new place asap, or offer to pay rent to the actual property owner (although the furniture etc no doubt belongs to the airbnb host). Perhaps the host will be able to work it out. 

A takeaway for me: another reason to put "family owned and operated" on your listing. 

[Z-2]

@Gillian166 Yes. The best way is the host work it out with landlord to at lease extend another 2 weeks. I am long term landlord too (not through Airbnb). If it were me, I rather extent the date than go to court to evict. Sure I don't think my daughter friends group will do that. But it's a risk for landlord that they won't move and he has to go to court (which will take a longer time than 2 weeks I am sure). But how can they trust that host anymore?