Are Airbnb guests who stay more than 14 days in an apartment a tenant under Berkeley, CA rent control laws?

[Douglas353]

Fellow hosters do you consider yourself a landlord?  When does a guest become a tenant?  

Berkeley California has some of the strictest anti-Airbnb/str laws in the world.  But they have an interesting exception for landlords.  Take a look at the City of Berkeley’s ordnance about Airbnb/strs, specifically #3.  We don not rent our property for less than 14 days so are we landlords and are our guests tenants?  We do have 3 other units on the property which we rent on a month to month bases and we are registered with the city as landlords.   

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Planning_and_Development/Land_Use_Division/Short_Term_Rentals_-_Freq... 

After reading the ordnance are we landlords and are our guest tenants?  What do you think? 

[Shayda3]

Hi Douglas! Did you find the answer to this question? I am currently researching the same thing! 

[Douglas353]

Yes.  If you have a guest who stays more than 14 days, they are protected and covered by Berkeley's rent control laws.  And if that's not enough, the fees/taxes you pay to the city pays for the attorneys who will defend your guest's rights to stay in your rental.  Airbnb has demonstrated they will not assist or provide any legal representation, you are on your own. 

Note the City of Berkeley just, as in the past month or so), redesigned the City's web site.  In doing so the links I posted are now invalid as are many links on the CoB web site.  Was it intentional?  You decide, but the new web site has made it extremely difficult for property owners to find the information they are looking for, while making it easier for renters to find the resources they need as tenants to register complaints with the city to cause issues for landlords. Oh, and Google's not much help now either to find stuff on the CoB web site.  We will have to wait as the links to the information on the old web site age out and from what I understand the City is restricting what information Google can index.  (Could it be the information landlords are looking for?)

One last thing....  The CoB has two full time "Airbnb Police" employees that you Airbnb taxes are paying.  They are actively search Airbnb's listing in the CoB for non-compliance and issue fines when "THEY" believe you are not complying.  Good luck trying to "fight" it when you are in the right.  And same old tune, don't expect any help from Airbnb....  Airbnb has given the city access to the listings to find listing which are not in compliance with the city's laws. 

Hope this helps. 

Let me know if you have another questions.