Dealing with corona

[Nina497]

Dear All 

I had a chat with a lawyer friend of mine. He believes that AIrbnb had absolutely no legal grounds to declare coronavirus an extenuating circumstance and push the entire burden on the hosts. I intend to file a small court claim. Was wondering if there are other hosts that would like to do the same? 

[Anonymous]

@Nina497  Under British law, what would your grounds be for not refunding a guest if your local laws prevented you from fulfilling a booking? 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Nina497  I would love to see your lawyer friends legal advice on this one. If Corona Virus and a country-wide lockdown are not extenuating circumstances I don't know what is.

@Anonymous also makes an interesting point. To have a legal claim you need to demonstrate losses. As it would be currently illegal to host in the UK then I can't see what your loss would be. Arguably the loss is negative as if you had cancelled (due to illegality) then without an extenuating circumstance Airbnb would have charged you a penalty.

[Helen3]

I would suggest your solicitor friend doesn't have a good understanding of contract law if that is what they are advising you @Nina497 

If a worldwide pandemic on the scale of we haven't seen in our lifetime is not a reason for having an EC policy to cover the pandemic I don't know what is.

Did you show them the original EC policy with a term that covers pandemics?

On what legal basis did they say you would have a case in the small claims court?