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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
Last I read was that the process server hadn't been able to serve, because the person coming out of the condo claimed to not be Maksym, but his brother. I guess in California the actual person has to be served. In Georgia the Marshall can just attach it at the door
She should have hired the sheriff's office to serve, and they could ask for an ID.
Joe Gore
This story just made it a few minutes ago on MSNBC's "Morning Joe"... I hope that the ongoing publicity makes it easier to kick those squatters out!!!
Since Cory is likely working with Airbnb at this point, and will probably be receiving some kind of settlement, it's likely we won't be hearing from her again until this is all over. And even then we might not ever learn the details. Also, we do not know if the squatter has made or will file a counter suit. He's sued at least one other landlord in CA for petty issues that ended in a settlement, so he's no dummy when it comes using the courts to buy time. Cory's attorney has likely told her to stop making additional public statements.
Serving the tenant in CA can be tricky. After posting and mailing the quit notices with no response, you can file the unlawful detainer. But the UD, since it's a court case with a complaint, requires service upon the tenant. If the tenant evades service (which many do), you can go back to the courts and ask for permission to satisfy the service requirement with an alternative, such as publication. This is where UDs can get drawn out.
@Account Closed et al... I'm still here, and no, airbnb has not stepped up (yet???). I look forward to sharing more soon.
Originally posted by @Cory T.:
@Account Closed et al... I'm still here, and no, airbnb has not stepped up (yet???). I look forward to sharing more soon.
Oh my. Really? With all the publicity, they haven't sent somebody to Palm Springs to buy off the squatter and make this go away. I'm sorry to hear that!
What about the process serving? Any success yet? Looking forward to hearing an update.
@Account Closed , did you miss the part where this story was on most news stations and papers in the ocuntry?
I would suspect that these people would not be easily 'bought out' , because they'd always be looking for more than they'd be offered. They already know their names are known everywhere and it'd be difficult for them to find a place to live, short or long term.
And I think Airbnb will likely wait until they're out to make good on any promises, because it's difficult to figure out final numbers until it's 'over.
I just happen to come across this collection on HuffPost and I think whenever there was a lot of publicity, they stepped up to the plate afterwards. For one thing, they know that the negative publicity, if they don't do anything, would cost them much more than anything they can offer you to make it go away.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/29/airbnb-horror-stories_n_5614452.html?utm_hp_ref=technology
Once again, @Michaela G. scores the scoop!
http://blog.sfgate.com/techchron/2014/08/01/airbnb-squatters-kicked-off-kickstarter-airbnb/#25546101=0
Originally posted by @Michaela G.:
http://blog.sfgate.com/techchron/2014/08/01/airbnb-squatters-kicked-off-kickstarter-airbnb/#25546101=0
Watch "Confederate Express Kickstarter video" on YouTube
Confederate Express Kickstarter video:
By the way, if these guys decide to try and delete their YouTube video, I've since captured it, forever.
Big Henry
They deserve to be shunt away from society. Better yet deported for illegal practice.. Karma is an unforgiving.
Anyone know how this ended up?
With their long trail of lawsuits, scams, and other landlord issues, there seems like should have been some red flags raised with a background check on the Pashanin brothers.
Did Airnb or the landlord check the landlord reference or perform a basic credit check on them at the very least before those scumbags rented out a home for more than a month and were thereby shielded by the same protection that a month to month tenant would enjoy?
I don't understand how this Airnb thing works, or why anybody would want to use them if you're trying to rent a place long-term especially if nobody is going to do any background checks.
Airbnb squatter checks out of Palm Springs apartment
After an arduous two months, Cory Tschogl finally has her condo back.
"There was nothing really dramatic inside the condo," Tschogl said. "There was no crazy damages. Everything was actually kind of in order. So it was like, anti-climatic, but in a positive way."
Great news!!! Thanks for the update, @Donna Martinez .
Good to see that airbnb came through in the end