Home Management Agreement??

[Lee-And-Jennifer0]

We have a situation here that has nothing to do with Airbnb, but it raised the question:  If you manage the rentals for other homeowners, what type of agreement do you have with them?  Written or just verbal?  Do you have any kind of Power of Attorney that spells out your authority and responsibility for the house in the owner's absense?

In our case, the homeowner of one of the homes we manage left for Florida for 2 weeks.  There is a non-paying 'guest' in the home now who is supposed to leave today, but is refusing to leave.  Without a power of attorney, we can't legally evict him ourselves.  The home owner will have to return and take care of it herself.  In the meantime, we have Airbnb guests scheduled to arrive on Christmas Day.  So we need him out of there.

Suggestions?

[Helga0]

@Lee-And-Jennifer0, if you manage a place for business contacts, not friends, a written agreement is a good idea. For friends, it’s not always necessary. 

Thinking about it, I doubt that a owner would want to give full powers to a manager. Or that you really want to hold it. 

How did this person enter? Let stay by the owner or by you for a while? 

I suppose, if you have the keys, you could proceed like with an overstaying paying guest.

Arrive in force and start cleaning.

Have the owner call him to get him out.

get more people in (surprise arrival)

tell him he will be liable for damages, lost income and airbnb penalties. 

Find a place to crash for him till after the paid stay

drop a terrarium with white mice or a snake “oh, my, where did it go? Willy! Come back! ... Did you see my rattle snake? It’s usually harmless, but must be frightened! Poor guy! Did not know it was so fast!” Best done with a fictive snake 😉

joke aside, if you do not succeed, call airbnb well in advance about the situation out of your control. They may help the guest and may waive penalties. 

[Lee-And-Jennifer0]

These are  friends, but I'm more thinking of situations where I may have to take legal action on the owner's behalf.  Such as calling the police to have someone evicted.  Or file a police report for theft of property or damage to the house. (In this case, we were finally able to get the guy to agree to leave yesterday, but he took numerous item from the house)

I feel like some kind of limited Power of Attorney, where the homeowner gives you the authority to act on his behalf in specific cases would be very helpful.  The authorities are often very reluctant to get involved if you have no legal standing.  From their standpoint, you're just a concerned neighbor, not the property manager.  If the authorities aren't convinced you have the right to represent the owner, everything has to wait for the owner to return.