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Evicting renter from a vacation rental property
Hello All,
I have a one-bedroom vacation rental condo in Palm Springs that has been listed on AirBnB for about a year now. I have my first stressful problem: a vacation renter with a 44 day reservation who will NOT leave now that the reservation has expired. (Payment was received for first 30 days, but not for the remaining 14 days). This is all new, to me, and I believe I have a professional scammer on my hands.
Unfortunately Airbnb has not provided support, and is only helping me via email responses every 48 hours or so. The information from Airbnb has been confusing, convoluded and contradictory at best. The summary is that somehow Airbnb collected payment for the first 30 days rental, and was unable to collect payment for the remaining 14 days. The renter has been there 14 days without paying. Today is the date that this reservation expires. (Original reservation May 25-July 8th.)
The tenant is refusing to leave, and sent me a text message this morning that borders on blackmail. I believe he is a professional scammer, and I now need to hire an attorney.
Has anyone had to deal with a similiar situation, or have advice to offer? Does anyone have a landlord-tenant attorney recommendation for the Palm Springs area?
Thanks for reading, and thanks for potential suggestions/solutions.
Sincerely,
Cory
This reminds me of the movie "pacific heights". I would be very careful here. Get an attorney to handle this. Don't try any self help. And definitely do NOT shut off utilities.
The 3 day notice might have to be re-issued, but have your attorney do everything. CA has too many tenant friendly laws so don't attempt to do this yourself.
Hopefully you are not in a rent controlled jurisdiction.
Originally posted by @Account Closed:
@Cory T. T. like everyone said, I have lots of sympathy for you for having to go thru this awful situation. A few things I can think of that might be of help:
1. On Airbnb site, there are Groups and one of them that is very active and closely related to Airbnb is the SFHomeSharers. Are you a member of that group? If you are not, join now. And if you are, put all this info you put in there on that site. You will have lots of responses and I"m sure Airbnb monitors that group since it is on their very site.
2. I hate to say this, but Carolyn Said of SF Chronicle is the one who gets very excited over any bad publicity on Airbnb. So if you email her, I think you'll get her attention right away. If you just search her name, I"m sure you'll find her email address.
I just got an inquiry to stay for 6 months and now I cringe to think what could happen if I don't screen extremely well. Your experience has surely taught us lots of lesson. I just told the person I need paystub, employer's letter and credit report (she's from the UK but has been here for 2 years).
Keep us posted and if there is anything I could help with, please let me know. That could have easily been me.
Too funny. I too thought about contracting Carolyn Said. I have shared info and resources on foreclosure with her in the past. It looks like she's transitioned to business reporting on what the Chronicle calls the sharing economy and maker movement. Regardless, for sure she knows someone who wants this story.
Originally posted by @Cory T.:
@k.
@Account Closed Yes, indeed it was a "customer service payout",,,see below:
Jul 10 08:30:
Hi Cory,
I can absolutely confirm that our payments division within our customer experience team paid you $--- USD on July 8th, 2014 to your default --- payout method ending in ---.
The reasoning behind which, was not only for customer service support due to the inconveniences you're experiencing with M----- and his relative, but because his second reservation payment, which was supposed to be charged from his payment method on June 26th, 2014, did not go through.
To clarify, on long term reservations lasting longer than 30 days, we spread the reservation payment and payouts up each month. At the 30 day mark of M-----'s reservation his card was set to be charged, but for whatever reason, whether intentional by him or not, his payment did not go through and his card could not be charged. Due to this, we wanted to make sure you still received money for hosting, so we paid you from our account while we reached out to M-----for re-payment to us.
I hope the above explanation helps but if you need further clarification please let me know!
Kind regards,
-------
Talk to your attorney but you might want to instruct airbnb to stop attempting to charge the card, if they still are. Having gone through a couple evictions myself I was told not to accept ANY payment as it might require the whole eviction process to be restarted. I'm thinking if squatter's card was charged in the middle of the eviction and by some miracle payment was not denied squatter could claim you (airbnb) accepted payment. Just a thought.
Originally posted by @Michaela G.:
Do a search at San Francisco Chronicle/SFGate.com , who like to write stories about airbnb (who are based in SF). Contact the reporter who wrote those stories
Thank you Michaela for all of your great PR suggestions/contacts/stories. Much appreciated!!
@Account Closed Thank you both for the reporter suggestion.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for continued information support!
@Andy Argonaut Thanks for posting...the power shut off was my plan to keep unit vacant during summer before I knew I had a squatter on my hands...I wouldn't do that with someone in the unit...I've been updated on laws, etc. Thanks.
@Account Closed Great advice...we did notify airbnb of these request (not to accept any payment at this point).
Cory, I would double and triple check that airbnb won't accept ANY payments from the squatter. All it takes is one mistake, and you'll probably need to restart the eviction process. And given how airbnb sounds clueless, I'd be worried some dope there will take a payment w/o knowing what's at stake.
I'm really surprised airbnb is not more aware of how tenancies can wreck havoc for their hosts. They really need to be on top of this, and at a minimum not interfere with your legal proceedings.
Did you send airbnb a cease and desist certified letter not to take anymore payments?
Joe Gore
Originally posted by @Amit M.:
Cory, I would double and triple check that airbnb won't accept ANY payments from the squatter. All it takes is one mistake, and you'll probably need to restart the eviction process. And given how airbnb sounds clueless, I'd be worried some dope there will take a payment w/o knowing what's at stake.
I'm really surprised airbnb is not more aware of how tenancies can wreck havoc for their hosts. They really need to be on top of this, and at a minimum not interfere with your legal proceedings.
This thread is on it's way to becoming a complete how-to guide for squatting in vacation rentals in California. The OP's squatter is probably trying to process some kind of payment right this very minute. Unless airbnb is totally on top of what is a very automated system, the OP's squatter can easily find a way to get a payment accepted.
@k.
@Account Closed Wow, scary thought. I instructed airbnb NOT to attempt collecting any payment from the squatter:
Jul 14 10:37:
Hi Cory,
My name is ------ and I am ------'s manager. He is currently on his weekend, returning tomorrow. I've been working with him closely on this case and want to confirm the guest's account has been quarantined and we will not be accepting further payment from him.
------ will be in touch with you tomorrow morning; however, feel free to reply to this email if there is anything I can assist you with today. I will be in and out of meetings and will check back mid-afternoon to see if there is anything I can do to help.
You are part of our Airbnb family and we want to support you as best we can through this situation.
Talk soon,
------
www.airbnb.com/help
@k.
@Account Closed Yes, I was delayed on this update as I received confirmation of just this morning. The 3-day notice posted last Friday July 11th, 9:30am, advised to wait until July,16th Wednesday morning to file UD.
I've received traction from a few reporters/writers...I may give exclusivity to one reporter in particular in order to obtain coverage with the hope of promoting consumer awareness around this issue.
I also got an okay to start blogging, (no names though)...I started with initial reservation/initial text communication on May 25th, and will update piece by piece to more present status of things:
www.myairbnbsquatter.com
Good luck!
Let's all visit Cory's blog so it gets more attention.
It sounds like AirBnb is working with you now, correct?
They've:
- paid you for the lost rent that the tenant did not pay
- 'Quarantined' the account, disallowing any payments from the tenant
- Opened lines of communication with you
What else are you trying to get from them? Re-imbursement for the legal fees, damages and rent lost beyond the 8th?
Cheers,
Originally posted by @Andrew Whicker:
It sounds like AirBnb is working with you now, correct?
They've:
- paid you for the lost rent that the tenant did not pay
- 'Quarantined' the account, disallowing any payments from the tenant
- Opened lines of communication with you
What else are you trying to get from them? Re-imbursement for the legal fees and rent lost beyond the 8th?
Cheers,
Remember, Cory didn't hear from airbnb until after the negative twitter blast. She tried reaching someone for 8 days with no help for a serious situation. They're helping now because it's in their best interest, PR-wise.
I think airbnb needs to cop to the fact that they are 1) collecting guest fees for 30+day stays for only 30 days at a time, hence no guarantee to the host of payment in full, and 2) a 30 day stay in a typical vacation rental in CA creates a tenancy situation. They should be required to disclose this issue to CA hosts. Then they can get to work on their $1M guarantee that will cover lost rents, evictions and legal representation when the guest doesn't pay and/or leave. Is that too much to ask? :)
Even if all the publicity does is make vacation rental hosts aware of the issue, that's a service Cory is paying for it, and the rest of us are learning about the issue for free.
It wasn't a loaded question.
I don't know what the goal of further media attention is. Those goals should be clearly stated so that Airbnb can respond effectively.
No one has filed an insurance claim yet (as I understand). We don't know if Airbnb will reject any of those claims.
It certainly would be great if AirBnb gave warning about the 30 day tenancy issue, but I think in the end it is the duty of the landlord (and their team) to know the local laws. Hopefully, AirBnb will post such a warning. That would be good customer service.
Originally posted by @Andrew Whicker:
It wasn't a loaded question.
I don't know what the goal of further media attention is. Those goals should be clearly stated so that Airbnb can respond effectively.
No one has filed an insurance claim yet (as I understand). We don't know if Airbnb will reject any of those claims.
It certainly would be great if AirBnb gave warning about the 30 day tenancy issue, but I think in the end it is the duty of the landlord (and their team) to know the local laws. Hopefully, AirBnb will post such a warning. That would be good customer service.
There will be no insurance claim to file. Airbnb's current $1M guarantee is for property damage and limited theft only. They don't offer insurance or guarantees for this kind of thing. So if Cory is going to get any reimbursements for lost rent or legal fees or anything else, airbnb will have to offer a "customer satisfaction" payment, a settlement or get sued.
Agreed that good customer service will have airbnb posting disclosures and warnings for CA hosts. And how to reach a real live person in less than 8 days if there is an emergency.
I want to take a moment to thank the BP community and all who have offered their advice, support, feedback, comic relief and general comments. I really have no clue how I would have gotten to this point with out the help of those on this forum. It has been a stressful ride for this BP notice/newbie, and I am so grateful to have found this community of support.
I hope my experience will help other property owners understand the risks involved with long-term rentals, and I anticipate that my experience will help shape Airbnb's practices and procedures in the future.
Here's to positive change. :-)
~Cory
I meant BP novice/newbie :)
@Andrew Whicker - it's a good question, and I believe the answer is that the goal here is to educate the public. Though we've discussed the usefulness of bad PR quite a bit on this thread, there is also the notion that many thousands of vacation rental owners have no idea how vulnerable they are. They need to know, lawmakers need to know, and sites like airbnb need to know (if they don't already) and improve upon their policies and protections. Take a look at how long this thread has become, and you can imagine the interest this topic will stir up among the broader vacation rental community.
And I think the media attention might shame the 'tenant' and will make it more difficult for him in the future to pull that stunt somewhere else, because the media will likely ask him for his opinion, which will put his name out onto the web.