I have learnt this week that my house, without my permission, is being advertised as a holiday let on the airbnb.com website.
I have reported this to airbnb customer services and to the CEO and various board members of airbnb, but the listing remains in effect...
The house was rented, under a formal "AST" contract under English law, to an individual. The terms of that signed contract very expressly forbid any form of subletting, and state the use of the home is as the primary residence of the named tenant only.
However, I have since learnt that this person has apparently provided fraudulent employment references, and has been illegally using my house as a holiday let for the 9 months since the tenancy commenced. Aside from the breach of the tenancy contract conditions, this “holiday house” letting is also in breach of local council authority property licencing conditions (inclusive of letting 8 holidaymakers stay in a house approved only for 2 persons) and is in breach of national fire and gas safety regulations. In short, anyone staying in this property advertised on these websites, is doing so illegally, and with grave risk to their health and safety.
A “cease and desist” notice in addition to an eviction notice have been served on the “tenant”, the local council authority and London Metropolitan Police have been notified, and I've engaged legal counsel to work through civil actions spanning (but not restricted to) fraudulent employment misrepresentation, profits clawback from illegal sub letting, and property alterations and damage that far exceeds the tenancy deposit (evidenced from online review photos from paying guests).
In the meantime, with the eviction process being a lengthy and expensive process, my “tenant” will continue to enjoy holiday let income - I'm guessing that given the location and the bookings I’ve already seen online, the tenant has earnt around £40,000 for this little scam.
This tenant and "host" has also been responsible for at least 9 other properties in this area of London, so I suspect there are other responsible landlords who may also have fallen foul with this scam.
Since flagging the issue to the airbnb team the host profile name has changed, and is now featuring a photo of Drake (the Canadian rap star who I'm quite sure is not aware of this fraudulent use of his details) - leading me to think that the original "host" hadn't been properly verified by airbnb, nor were there any checks when the person name and photo suddenly changed.
This alarms me greatly - aside from my concerns as the owner of this property, I now have doubt over the legitimacy of who my hosts might be when I book airbnb properties as a guest. If the verification process is so weak/non existent, am I potentially putting myself and my family at risk when we book an airbnb with any one who hasn't achieved superhost status?? Am I at risk of having my holiday cut short and losing my holiday rent payment when another landlord arrives with bailiffs to empty a property?
