Evicting renter from a vacation rental property

[Cory T.]

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

[Osazee J Osagie]

great lesson. such a difficult case.

[Dee Demarest]

Once you exceeded the 29 day/night threshold legally no longer short term (which goes by hotel laws that let them call the police and remove them) you now have to go by the laws for long term "tenant/landlord" laws that requires you to give the notice to pay or quit based on your state laws you have to give them 3 to 5 days to comply, then you can start an eviction and they can stay there until you get a court order to evict and then the police will come out and pull them out if they have not already left to avoid an eviction.  The OLMs don't have any skin in the game and you're talking to people in another country that don't even understand our laws (not to mention they can be slightly different from one state to another).  I just canceled my monthly vacation rental from VRBO because their business model puts you at higher risk without being able to have the time to properly screen people etc. and that allows for scammers to come and abuse your property.  That's why people are complaining about the aquality of people that come to these type properties too while these online Techy websites to make money hands over fits.  I will only pay to advertise and have direct access to renters so I can properly screen them, get big deposits too.

[Dee Demarest]

Quote from @Lisa Phillips:

@Aaron Mazzrillo  - Well said. Everyone experiences lost, I wont act like I haven't been taken to the cleaners a time or two! We learn, we grow. Don't panic and stay calm is EXCELLENT advice, and something we can all take advice from.

@K. Marie Poe - I bet AirBnB are getting more scammers because most AirBnB hosts are not full time landlords, so they know they can get an easier target than going through a normal route of renting out a unit. A scammer smells the fish, so that would be my bet on why its escalating in this arena. An Airbnb host usually isn't in addition learning the ups and downs of tenant laws for this cities like people on this site doing it for the last 5 years. Sometimes you really do learn from experience for us, and for anyone new getting into the business. Now, if you're a professional scammer (this guy definitely looks like that duck), it doesnt matter if you're new or experienced, we can get caught up in this.

@Cory T. Shame on Airbnb for deleting your messages! I am glad they came back, but its seems terribly unethical and shady business practices. I have used AirBnB Many times, and YOUR STORY WILL HELP OTHERS PREVENT THIS FROM HAPPENING IN THE FUTURE!! Your frustration is felt, but thank you! I am now going to jump on with my attorneys (I use prepaid legal services, and the VA lawyers are great!) and ask them about what is the time line before someone switches from a short term occupant to a full fledged tenant. And yes, Airbnb SHOULD have individual notices for each state (easy to do, 1 weeks worth of effort on their part), and let owners in each state what the time line is for rentals before it becomes a short stay to a legal tenant stay. I mean, protect your customers AND yourself, Airbnb!!

Its sad your in California. I posted a few videos on the differences between landlord vs tenant friendly states, and I would honestly never INVEST my money in California at all for that reason. You live there, so its harder for you to escape CA's ridiculousness, but there are investors who absolutely keep the laws in mind when deciding to invest. CA and NY don't deserve honest money.

@Michaela G. You're so amazing! I always love reading your post, your perspective is different and relevant. I actually took screen shots of that youtube page for the OP, if they ever need it. Maybe not, but its interesting his 1M plus vacation rental company connection. Very shady. But great detective work :-)

My state is 29 nights or less is "short term" called tranient renters and the laws conform to the Hotel/Motel hospitality & Bed and Breakfast business model.  Some states may say 30 or 31 nights.  But in my state 30 days (one month) is the standard Long Term rental.  So once a renter has occupied your property for 30 nights and you call the police the first thing they will ask is how long they have lived there for, once you say a month they will tell you you have to evict them and that means you have to go by the tenant/landlord laws of the state.  So the minute they don't pay rent, shut down any access to sending electronically to you or accepting any partial payments unless you get in writing a committment (date with signature) when they will pay the balance, otherwise don't waste one day in accepting excuses because they are just taking you down a rabbit hole and prolonging their stay. You could wind up losing more than one months rent too.  They only know you mean business when you act, give then the 3 day notice to pay or quit and then file for eviction and get then serve!