Airbnb host harrassed neighbour (non airbnb) to force out and rent our place as airbnb

[Lisa7389]

Hi There,

I have been using AirBnB for many years and never had a bad experience. 

This post is about a Host that we had as a neighbor and was constantly harrassing us, threatening us and invading our privacy. The property we lived on consisted of two cottages, one large log cabin with 6 bedrooms and on the water with a dock and firepit. It was a beautiful unit, we lived in the boathouse not far from it. The log house became available and they took over managing it and turned it into an airbnb. My husband was the groundskeeper for the whole property, he did all of the lawncare and snow removal before they showed up. Afterwards, ,they asked him to help with getting the log cabin up to speed to be airbnb ready. This included: doing all the lawn, the trimming, the eavesthroughs, the dock and the making anew fire pit, the fire wood and the bins to contain it. He also managed the hot tub and all the chemicals and planting the flowers and growing new grass in areas needed. Basically anything they wanted he did to help out. 

Eventually they became extremely overbearing, passive aggressive and confrontational. Nothing was good enough, they started to hide equipment, not let him use the tools needed to do job... They were coming to our home with friends like they wanted to show them that they would have it ALL eventually, invading our privacy (my wife was in shower one time) on our back deck drinking beer and smoking weed like it was their place. They started trying to force us out of our home, so they could airbnb it. My wife has MS and i have a 4 year old. I also have a prosthetic leg (which i never complain about) so just leaving for the fact that these greedy MFs wanted it was extremely cruel and stressful. They were not our landlords, just the neighbors running the airbnb next door.  At this point, we decided the stress was too much and found new home. However, we want to take action and need support or advice. anything you could suggest would helpful. 

thank you

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Lisa7389 as you have left the property there is little you can do. It is too late to call the police over their trespass so I think all you can do is get on with your life in the new location.

[Lisa7389]

There must be someone at airbnb we can contact and file a formal complaint. We will also go to the municipality and building inspectors. They will continue to do this to others and it's not right. 

[Ann72]

As @Mike-And-Jane0 say @Lisa7389 there is nothing you can do now, but you should familiarize yourself with the covenant of quiet enjoyment (https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/covenant_of_quiet_enjoyment).  Your landlord was responsible for insuring you had quiet enjoyment of the place you were renting and it was to him or her that you could have brought your complaints.

[Mark116]

@Lisa7389   You are probably better off having left the property because bad neighbors can be REALLY a bad, even dangerous thing.  In hindsight, you could have contacted your own landlord to report the tresspassing and harassment and even say you thought their goal was to buy the property themselves.  You might also have tried a restraining order after the tresspassing, but again, heightening the tensions with a close neighbor almost never works out well.  So, I would take a deep breath and be glad you are out of the stress.  Next time though, as @Ann72  recommends, research your rights as a tenant to prevent things from getting to such a point.  Good luck.