Is Your Tenant Listing the Property on AirBnB? Could Cost you A lot!
With websites such as Airbnb exploding, unscrupulous tenants have been causing landlords a lot of problems and costing landlords a lot of money. Many cities have ordinances that prevent short-term renting. A debate about whether those laws are good for the community or bad it’s for another article. But they exist and landlord needs to be wary.
Where a landlord rents a residual property to a tenant, the tenant is expected to live there. Any good lease, the tenant would be required to get the landlords consent to allow another tenant to live there. However, some tenants are going even further and listing rental properties on Airbnb. They are in effect acting like short-term landlords. The problem is where such short to renting is not allowed by a local law, it is often the landlord or property manager that gets hit with the ordinance law violation. Some cities such as Miami Beach, the fine is thousands of dollars. We have successfully defended landlords and property managers against claims brought by cities such as Miami Beach for improper short-term renting. If you want to know how you can contact us for more information. However, landlord and property managers need to be vigilant to make sure that their tenant is not listing the property and short-term rental websites. And if the landlord or property manager finds out, then immediate action should be taken to show good faith and not condoning the tenant’s illegal activity.