Guest refusing to leave after a month stay

[Petra679]

Hi.

Just wanted to share my concerns about long staying guests in UK.

Apparently they have the same rights as if they had a tenancy agreement and if they refuse the leave the property, they could only be evicted with a court order. what do AiRBNB does in such cases? Does the insurance cover the legal costs and the loss in rent?

It could take on average 18 months to eveict a tenant with a court order. How are the AIRBNB hosts protected from guests refusing to leave?

[Helen427]

Hello @Petra679 and welcome to ABB CC from across the lands and oceans from New Zealand.

This is a challenging situation to be in.

I personally have set out my listing in such a manner that people must request stays longer than 7-10 days so as to ensure clear communications and understandings and hopefully avoid problems arising.

Each situation is different as to whether it's a Home-share, Flatting, Boarding or whole home arrangement,

There's discussion topics tucked here in the CC that can be found using related keywords.

@Huma0 @Yadira22 @Stephanie and others based in the UK will better able to give guidance what the best avenues to take in the UK that have similar laws to other Commonwealth Countries.

All the Best

[Leanne207]

@Helen427 I'm in sth island NZ. I'm super interested to know how you deal with longer stays in NZ. I'm having a dispute ATM of someone that stayed over a month...then had pregnancy complications so left her in for longer....then we met her partner who had come from nth island to stay and look after the kids and verbally put it in his name (tried unsuccessfully to get in writing) . Cancelled bookings so the kids weren't made homeless. The baby was born so gave them a bit longer as the stress and unable to find other accommodation...total was over 90days. Now taking us to tribunal and currently trying to prove tribunal don't have jurisdiction. Advice? Thoughts?

[Fiona256]

Airbnb won't help you. Their "insurance" is resistant to helping anyone with claims. You need your own insurance. And if you take long-term lets you need to register with your local council as a landlord.  Airbnb is not the right platform for long-term lets. Use a letting agent who will keep you right about the legislation and your many obligations as a landlord.

[Petra679]

Thank you so much

[Sarah977]

@Petra679  While Airbnb advertising promotes long term stays, they have done nothing to protect hosts in those situations- they act like the same policies that apply to a 3 night stay are sufficient for long term stays.

It simply isn't a platform you should use for long term stays. When a guest becomes a tenant in the eyes of the law, the host becomes a landlord, so needs to rent the way landlords normally do to protect themselves. With a lease, real security deposit, references, work history and current employment, credit and criminal record checks. Not through Airbnb.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Petra679 a few questions:

what sort of property is it - Shared home or entire property?

how long have you/do you plan to allow people to stay?

who pays for utilities, internet etc?

All the above are key to guests gaining tenants rights in the UK

[Huma0]

@Petra679 sorry to hear you are in this situation.

@Mike-And-Jane0 is correct. The laws that apply depend on the circumstance.

Because I host private rooms in my own primary home, my guests absolutely do not have tenants rights, even if they are long term. Nor does anyone I rent the rooms to on a long term basis through any other means. They are lodgers or licensees. That means I can ask them to leave for any reason. I just need to give them 'reasonable notice', which is usually taken to mean one rental period, e.g. if they pay weekly, you give them a week's notice. If they pay monthly, you give them a month's notice. Unlike with a shorthand tenancy agreement, I do not have to store their stuff indefinitely. I just give them reasonable notice to come pick it up, otherwise I am free to dispose of it. I can change the locks if I want to.

Now, if you are not living in the property, that is a whole other matter. Yes, it's then possible for the guests to gain tenants rights and you potentially have a long and costly battle on your hands. I would not use Airbnb for that type of rental. It's far too problematic.

[Petra679]

It's entire property.  A flat. It's a hypothetical situation I am asking about. 

I asked Aiarnb what is they policy and how the insurance protects the host in such situations. 

The response from them was very unprofessional and didn't inspire confidence.  The specialised team member kept saying ' I don't know, you just need to contact us if it happens ". But he was vague and genuinely clueless about what they could do in a situation when even the police can't do anything. 

Eventually I decided to not use airbnb for longer stays 

[Huma0]

@Petra679 

I wouldn't rely on Airbnb to be much use if such a situation did arise. A long term guest pays monthly, rather than upfront, and there is no real 'security deposit'. So, it's not just that the guest could book for 90 days and then refuse to leave. They could also book for 90 days, pay for the first month, enabling them to check in, and then cancel the payment method. Airbnb would attempt to get them to pay for the second month, but if the guest doesn't pay and refuses to leave, what is Airbnb going to do about it?

I really don't know for sure if a guest who booked via Airbnb (or another STR booking platform) for a fixed term would qualify for tenants' rights. There doesn't seem to be that much information out there about this. However, as @Mike-And-Jane0 mentioned, in London, you are only allowed to rent an entire property as an STR for a maximum of 90 nights per year, so I am not sure Airbnb is the way to go in your situation.

[Petra679]

The booking request was for 90 days, entire property, I pay the bills.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Petra679 From everything I have read, as long as you qualify as a Furnished Holiday let, you should not be creating a tenancy for an occasional 90 day stay. As a FHL you need to achieve 105 days of rentals with no rental exceeding 30 days and be available to rent for 210 days.

Having said that I see you are in London - If your property is in London you are limited to 90 days of short term rentals so I guess you can't qualify as a FHL.

You say you are not using Airbnb but if you are creating a tenancy elsewhere then you will need to comply with all the tenancy rules of gas and electricity safety certificates, EPC certificates, deposit holding schemes and others I am sure I have forgotten. I am sure there are some others I have forgotten.

[Robin4]

@Petra679 

Petra, most hosts will not rent for any longer than 28 nights. After either 4 weeks or one month (depending on the jurisdiction's interpretation) tenancy rights change and the guest can be very much harder to evict. And you can bet if a guest contemplates taking this sort of action they will be thoroughly versed with the law and where they stand.....they will know all the legal loopholes, and the situation is complicated by the fact that your rental property is not a shared space.....it is an entire property.

I even heard of one situation seven months ago where, in addition to refusing to leave, the guest of a 5 week reservation (while his own property, which was experiencing delays, was being built) after the 5 weeks demanded the listing owner reduce his weekly rent until his property was complete and he could move out, from $1,200 pr week, (the listing price of $170 pr night) to $300 pr week ($43 pr night) because he was no longer a short term guest! He claimed he was not a squatter, was continuing to pay rent to the host who had previously been accepting it and was now classified as a long term tenant and involved the Residential Tenancy Tribunal on the grounds that, as there was no lease to cover his situation, $300 pr week was an acceptable long term rental amount for the standard of property the landlord was entitled to charge on an LTR basis.  It took almost 2 months of legal tomfoolery for that to get thrown out.

Even if Airbnb did claim any level of host support, that would end at the termination of the paid reservation, and the host would be on his own from that point! Airbnb do not get involved in any issues outside of their terms of service.

I would be reticent to accept a reservation for any longer than 28 nights and if the guest wants to stay for longer than that I would ask the guest to create another reservation. And even that could be challenged if there was not at least a one night break between reservations.

If it's a hypothetical situation Petra.....keep it hypothetical! 

Cheers.........Rob

[Helen3]

Hello @Petra679 

Airbnb is simply a listing platform. It's up to you as the STR business owner to check what your liabilities might be in terms of tenancy rights before accepting long term bookings.

if you accept a longer term booking you need to vet your guests carefully to understand their reasons for such a stay to minimise the risks .

You can also include a weekly clean for longer term bookings so it is clearly a short term holiday let .

or just accept short term bookings .