complaint about host illegal listing

[Gursharan2]

I am Dr Gursharan [name] working as consultant Dermatology in Manchester. My husband [name] is consultant Anaesthetic and our 22 yrs old son  [name]  is a 3rd yr Medical student. We have a property in [location] that we had rented to [name]. He started using this as an airbnb without our knowledge. Recently he informed us. We have requested him to take the property off airbnb listing but he refuses to do so and refuses to vacate the property. Please advise.

*[Personal information hidden for safety reasons–in line with the Community Center Guidelines] 

[Cathie19]

@Gursharan2 , this is not the Airbnb help line. 

@Lizzie , @Stephanie  and @Quincy , can any of you help them?

🙂

[Marit-Anne0]

@Gursharan2  this issue has very little to do with airbnb and almost everything to do with the letting contract between you and your tenant.  If the contract specifies no sub-letting, your tenant is in breach of contract and you need to have your tenant evicted on these grounds.  

I am not familiar with evicting process in the UK, but you should be able to find info doing a google search. 

[Lizzie]

Hello @Gursharan2,

Welcome to the Community Center, I'm sorry to hear about this, especially as it sounds like it is causing you worry. 

I would recommend as @Marit-Anne0 has said to speak further with your tenant, as he has signed a contract with you and he maybe in breach of that. Hopefully you can work something out between you. 

If you wish to speak with our Support Team, please do take a look at this Community Help Guide on the different ways. 

Thanks,

Lizzie

P.S - as you post is publicly visible, I hope you don't mind, for safety reasons I've removed the personal information. 

[Susan17]

@Gursharan2 

Unfortunately, you're highly unlikely to get any assistance from Airbnb in this instance. Their standard response in such situations is that they can't (won't) take down the listing because Airbnb is just a platform and "does not own, operate, manage or control accommodations”,  and according to them, they are not able to close the listing unless the hosts do it themselves.

Presumably, there's a "no subletting" clause in your tenant's contract, so you will likely have to take legal action through the usual channels to have them evicted. 

@Marit-Anne0 

"This issue has very little to do with Airbnb.."

I couldn't disagree more on this one. This has everything  to do with Airbnb. They hide behind decades-old laws to disingenuosly claim their company is merely an "internet services provider" (as opposed to a property services provider, which it clearly is), in order to dodge all the rules, regulations, disclosure and reporting requirements that apply to every other company operating in the sector, which absolves them of all responsibility, and leaves them free to list hundreds of thousands (at minimum) of illegal listings on their site, with impunity. Airbnb has already spent - and is still spending - hundreds of millions fighting court battles in the US and Europe, to win the right to carry on doing just that. 

If Airbnb had any will to purge its platform of shady and illegal operators, all they'd have to do is simply require each host to provide documentation to prove that the property they are listing belongs to them, or that they have permission from the owner to list on Airbnb, along with proof that they are in compliance with local laws. But they flat-out refuse to do that, except in the tiny minority of jurisdictions where such measures have already been mandated by law. We need to ask ourselves, if Airbnb truly is the "good partner" to local governments that it professes it is, why would they not be requiring these simple proofs from hosts, as standard, before they're permitted to list any property?