Property being illegally listed on Airbnb

[Ac21]

Briefly: I am neither a host nor guest. I am the owner of a property in Virgina that is being rented out without my permission, and in violation of the long-term lease, HOA guidelines, and County ordinance. This is a clear violation of the lease our 12-month tenant signed with our property management company. Adding to the confusion/complexity, the “superhosts” listing the property are *not* our tenant. I have no idea who these people are, nor does the property manager. In the meantime, the HOA and neighbors are angry, strangers are in my house, and I’m potentially liable for $500/day in fees from the County (in addition to the liability risks). 

Contacting AirBnB was useless. They would only tell us to contact the “hosts.” I managed to message the listed “superhosts” via AirBnB - and they did not respond, but the listing was removed. (Their other listings are still up on the site.) However, neither they nor AirBnB will confirm that future reservations already made have been cancelled. (The “hosts” have never responded, period.) Our tenant has also been unresponsive - I don’t even know if he is still living locally. 

My concern is that we will continue to have AirBnB “guests” showing up for the next few months. The house is one of a series of townhouses in a small cul-de-sac with very nosy neighbors and extremely limited parking. There is no way these people will go unnoticed. I (along with the property manager) have already had one stressful encounter with AirBnB renters, who truly believed they had been renting from the owners and were understandably very upset to find out their presence there was illegal. I would like to spare future “guests,” as well as myself, a repeat of this experience. 

Legal action is being taken against the tenant, who must immediately stop or face eviction within 30 days. However, that does not guarantee that the people listing (again, not my tenant - although I assume they are acting with his knowledge) will cancel reservations which have already been made. It’s bad anough that AirBnB doesn’t verify that the people listing actually have a legal right to do so, but it also horrible for their “guests” to show up to a place only to be informed the place they are renting cannot legally be used as an AirBnB. 

Does anyone have any advice or experience with this sort of situation? Is there any legal means to get AirBnB to confirm future listings are removed? We are willing to take legal action outside of the standard civil eviction process, if it guarantees that the people doing this stop. 

Thank you. 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Jonathan2209  Reviews cannot be left by people not staying in a property. Also local hosts leaving reviews would cause the review to be removed per the Airbnb policy.

If Airbnb removed listings just because someone says they are in contravention of a lease then any disgruntled neighbour could get listings removed.

The perils of renting property in the UK are clear and so sadly you will need to go through the proper process to remove your tenant. The anti-landlord policies in the UK are the reason we are in STR rather than LTR.

[Jonathan2209]

Many thanks. Very helpful. I'm not that familiar with Airbnb policies. 

Fraudulent hosts undermine the businesses of legitimate hosts so it should be of concern to them. But you're right, any system for reporting fraud is open to abuse. The missing piece in all of this is that Airbnb is unaccountable.  

[Mar125]

@Ac21 

Your lease is between you and your tenant. If you grant entry to your tenant, not any one else, then the license he subleased to airbnb is a breach of contract. You don’t have to prove airbnb listing is illegal or what. You’ll have to proof burden that your tenant is breaching your contract, which isn’t easy.. You are facing shale of shale (hosts IDs, airbnb records, airbnb listing time). 

You are most likely losing the eviction case unless you can absolutely sure the listing is your property’s address. 

you shall have made a reservation at this listing just to prove the address of it and then try the eviction route.

that”s why i never do long term rental. You can not control sublease in these days.

[Sharon1776]

I am in a similar situation. Our long term tenant is subletting our property. We have given them notice to vacate in line with local laws (Vic, Australia). They continue to have the property advertised beyond the eviction date. 
Either way, I have contacted air bnb who refuse to remove the listing even though I have evidence of ownership, proof of contract showing illegal subletting and notice to evict.  

Taking tenant/airbnb to court is not a realistic option here. I’m not after legal advice - just advice on how to remove the listing. 

Has anyone had any success with removal of an illegal listing? 

[Helen3]

In your situation I would post on Airbnb's social media asking why they are refusing to remove a listing that you have demonstrated to them is being illegally sub let @Sharon1776 

[Marie8425]

@Ac21 

I know upsetting.

Legally though you have no agreement with Airbnb and Airbnb has no actual legal knowledge of any possible agreement you did or didn't make with anyone relating to the property.

You probably need to get a lawyer, who can effectively through a judge give you control of the property back.  

If there are any types of fines for illegal use of your property a lawyer will try to recover from the tenant.  Airbnb has no responsibility to that because who ever was the Host signed the TOC stating no illegal activity.  People lie and that's why the TOC states legal activity.  Anyone that signs a contract where the other party intentionally falsified is not liable for someone else's lies.

I suggest don't waste time chasing Airbnb, you are in a bad situation, get a lawyer an expedite protecting yourself and your property.

I an very sorry.  A nightmare, but deal with what you can do,