Landlord forced to ‘put food back on the shelf’ over Airbnb subletting scam

A landlord has revealed that he had no choice but to put some of his food shopping back on the shelf due to the financial strain of a subletting scam that has seen his tenant refuse to leave and instead, sublet the property to tenants on Airbnb, pocketing the profit.

The landlord, who has not had access to his property for over seven months, told Katie Hannon on Liveline that the tenants were currently making money off of it while he continued to lose money over the previous months.

He added that despite attempts from the letting agent to schedule visitation to the property and attempts by the landlord himself to access the house, he had been denied access with the tenant claiming that they ‘couldn’t make it’.

Landlord John has only been able to access the rental property in the last week despite the tenants moving in several months ago.

The Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) have issued the tenants with an adjudication as well as an eviction notice from John, but he is still waiting for a final determination to be issued. The tenant also admitted at a hearing at the start of May that they had not paid any rent since November– no reason was given as to why they failed to do so.

Despite the tenant revealing to the RTB that they had not paid rent, the landlord criticised their lack of urgency in the case, which he claimed had taken a significant emotional and financial toll on both himself and his family.

‘The point I really want to make clear to you is that this is not a landlord versus tenant argument,’ said John. ‘What is happening to me is hurting decent potential tenants because my house is not available to them to rent, and I really wonder how many other houses are being tied up in this process that are also not available to rent.’

The landlord added that upon gaining entry into his house and meeting the tenant, they could not give a ‘coherent’ explanation as to why they were denying him full access to his own home, causing immense stress on his entire family.

John explained that the tenant has since admitted to letting out the property after denying all allegations against her at the hearing in May.

In response to the landlord’s ongoing issue, Airbnb commented that it doesn’t ‘own, operate, manage or control accommodation’ despite taking bookings for John’s property.

He later admitted that he had lost out on about €14,000 — Airbnb refused to answer how many times his home had been rented out while the landlord was being denied access to the property.

‘My partner and I have really struggled to even talk about it at times because we get so emotional,’ said the landlord, becoming emotional. ‘We’re tied up in not knowing when this is going to end because no one can give us a timeframe for when I can have this tenant removed and get my house back,’ he added.

‘A week ago, I had to put groceries back on the shelf because I didn’t have the money to buy a week’s worth of shopping for me and the kids,’ he revealed.

The landlord slammed the RTB when they came back with a statement reading that adjudication, mediation, and a tribunal application had a waiting time of almost 32 weeks, adding that his tenant had not submitted one piece of evidence in their favour throughout the entire process.

John admitted to Liveline that once he gets his house back, he plans to sell it immediately and leave the rental market completely, stating that he ‘couldn’t go through it again’.

‘Seven weeks after the hearing, where the tenants admitted it, I still don’t have the determination order,’ he said. ‘It’s farcical,’ he added.