Superhost collecting money from listing in collaboration with my tenant

[Paul10930]

Hello folks. I am the owner of a home who had a tenant in place. (Not by airbnb).   In recent weeks I have discovered that the tenant in co operation with an airbnb superhost and her partner have placed my home on airbnb and collecting all the income from it. By that I mean the three of them have been collecting all the income and dividing it amongst themselves. They are all well known to each. Although I know there are legal avenue for me to pursue, is there anything airbnb can do about the host. She is a superhost in my area. I'm sure this is against an airbnb policy.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Paul10930 I don't think this is against policy for Airbnb. Your only recourse lies with the lease you have with the tenant. I assume you have a no sub-leasing clause in the lease? If not then I suspect they have done nothing wrong.

[Helen3]

1. Hopefully by now you've moved to evict the tenant 

2. Talk to a solicitor about taking the tenant to court and suing them for the money they made .

 
hopefully you took screen shots of the listing showing your tenant was a cohost and details of the listing 

@Paul10930 

airbnb do anything about an arrangement between hosts and cohosts it's an independent business arrangement 

[Rebecca]

Hi @Paul10930 👋

I'm really sorry to hear that this happened to you. I'd love to know if you have an update or what you're planning to do. It may help other hosts who visit the Community Center with a similar issue. 

Looking forward to hearing from you. 

[Paul10930]

HI Rebecca,

Nothing I can do about it now.  I will airbnb the place myself now.  The money is gone and those that profited from the dishonesty have had luck on their side.  Make sure if you do have a tenant in your own place, (not airbnb), that you include in the contract that the place is not to be sublet.

[Frances3408]

@Paul10930.Paul, as a fellow landlord (who does directly manage tenants as well as being an STR host) I'm sorry to hear. Ideas:

As you know STRs in Gold Coast area now often require registration. https://www.houst.com/blog/short-term-regulation-gold-coast

Does the former SH have this and if yes, when did they get it? If not or you can prove they didnt comply with exemptions, you could try making a complaint to the GCC Council (and whatever QLD dept deals with registration complaints). If the host was properly complying then yes, maybe out of luck.

Re subletting I'm really suprised there wasnt at least the wording "with the owners consent" Or was this a more casual tenancy arrangement? I always use the state based standard lease as a starting point. Helps when there have been so many changes to tenancy laws and also the overlap with short term rentals (think privacy, fire safety, bonds, pets etc).

Finally, you have a co host. I assume this is someone you now trust? Just check you are aware of what information/permissions are in your Airbnb settings for your co host to access.