condo building management giving me a $1000 fine although my listing calendar is blocked!?

[Dave138]

Hi everyone, 

I had a listing for our unit in a condo buildling. The listing was from early 2016 and I have never actually rented the condo out to anyone. Since 2016 I blocked all the dates on the calendar because our condo building management gave us a notice of $1000 fines if we rent our place short term. I blocked the dates, assuming the condo wont show up in searches as its never available. 

The condo board/management got back to me yesteday saying they found my unit in an airbnb search and I now have to pay $1000 !!!

This is in Montreal, Canada. I have no idea what to do! I told them it was impossible to book as all dates are blocked, and invited them to try but they refused to listen and said I have to pay up. Im willing to take this to court, but do I have anything to stand on? 

The notice of the change in rules (and the fines) was sent to me via email by  my landlord (im not the owner) and it was in french. I never signed anything saying I understand/agree with the rules. Will that stand in court? 

I'm meeting the board today to try to plea my innocence  and I've asked airbnb to send me a confirmation of when my listing was originally put up on the site so I can show the board that it was BEFORE the new regulations came into place in January 2017. Im still waiting for airbnb staff to send me a confirmation. Its very urgent! 

Any advice will be greatly appreciated!

[Marit-Anne0]

@Dave138

If you do not enter dates, any listing that is not snoozed or unlisted will show up in searches.

You have your transaction history and your booking list that you can print from your account - if that is blank, you may have a case.

[Helen3]

Why did you keep the listing live if you didn't intend to use it. You could have simply deleted it or put it on snooze.

[Dave138]

no offence but I'm looking for advice, not 'captain hindsight' comments. I left the listing on there in case I want to use it again one day- obviously... 

Like I said, I was not aware that blocking a listing from calednar will still make it show in searches. 

[Gerry-And-Rashid0]

@Dave138 

I imagine it depends on the actual wording: for example if it said 'cannot offer to rent...' then you might have a problem as an advert on AirBnB is an offer to rent. If it says 'cannot rent...' then you have not rented... I would play hardball with them - you really have nothing to lose. They are probably trying to make an example of someone. I would look at the wording first and hope that is in your favour...

[Joanna85]

I agree...just print out your history and even your calendar if you can to show it's not been rented and it is blocked since you were informed of the changes.  You don't have anything to lose, what's done is done and with all that is going on all over the world with municipalities trying to boot Airbnb short term stays, they probably are just trying to find someoene to make an example out of them, as the other host said.  Even if they find you guilty after you showed them all that proof you haven't rented the space since...try to negotiate a smaller fine, since obviously you haven't done wrong since you were informed it is against the rules.  Offer to remove the listing altogether ..maybe something like, "If I show proof the listing has been removed from the site, will you take a lower amount in fine?"  I"m always haggling--I even haggled to try to get some amount removed from parking tickets I got because they tack on so many admin fees and processing fees and weird secret taxes..so the tiny tickets resulted in giving them a limb...lol.  You get what I"m saying...'no' is never really a no in these types of things.  They just want you to not do it--it's not about the money at all.

[Dave138]

Thank you, thats my plan. At the moment I'm going to meet the board and the management and negotiate and talk. I can show them transaction history empty, I will also show them my unit which is covered in crap and boxes as we're moving out in 3 weeks... I spoke to a real estate agent friend and he said they have nothing to stand on as its practically impossible to prove that i rented the unit out to anyone in a court of law. 

thanks everyone

[Zacharias0]

What happened to proving you are actually the person who listed the unit? Anyone around the world could have listed it. It should be there job to PROVE that you actually rented out the unit during the time period in question not your intent to rent it out. You could list every single persons unit in that condo building on AirBnB and then what? Will they fine unaware and innoncent people with attempting to list a short term stay. Most municipalities are saying stays under 30 days aren't allowed. What if you have 30 day stays booked? On top of that your landlord could simply have stated he is renting the unit to you using AirBnB and that is how you pay the landlord for your stay. Its presumptious to believe that finding a listing on AirBnB is an open and shut case. They actually have to do their due diligence in finding you in violation of their community rules. You can ultimately take them to court.