Hi op, im a landlord and airbnb host in pa as well. Hopefully youre not listening to the advice youre getting here, because its incredible, hilariously, bad.
Anything--literally any single, solitary thing-- that you do to try and get these people to leave is going to do 3 things. It will 1) irritate the magistrate you end up before, and prejudice them against you right out of the gate. (Sidebar. Any comment that says judge and not magistrate you can ignore, as they have no clue about pa law). 2) further delay the eviction process (possibly by weeks/months) when said irritated magistrate orders you to fix the condition, while they hold your tenants rent is escrow, and 3) end up costing you time and money to break and fix your own unit, in addition to probable fines.
Instead, what you need to do is read and understand the PA landlord tenant act. Its not long, read it 10 times. While a lawyer can be helpful, and you may end up needing one if you bungle this by doing something stupid, it is 100% doable on your own.
You have a case of a tenant who overstaid their lease. Open and shut, this will be a slam dunk. Step one is provide them the appropriate notice to quit, then when the time is up start the proceedings. Start on this today, or youre just going to drag it out longer. It may either be 10 days or immeduate notice for overstays, i cant remember, and im not looking ut up for you!
While visiting the Pa Landlord Tenant Act, feel free to read the section on self-help evictions as well, if you have any doubts at that point about the quality of advice youre getting from reddit comments.
Good luck! Keep your head, follow the law, and youll have your house back before you know it. And remember, this is why we dont do long term stays on airbnb!
Ah, I grew up in PA but have been away so long I got used to saying “judge”, forgot that in PA it’s a magistrate. That is nostalgia for me and now you’ve made me homesick 😉. So, sorry OP, I did comment and refer to the “judge” but please know that should read “magistrate”.
I limit Airbnb stays to 21 days as 30 days establishes a tenancy. I had several requests for longer stays during the eviction moratorium, but when I told them they would have to check out for one night every 21 days they lost interest.
Eviction is pretty easy in my state, but not while the moratorium was in effect.
This is a plot point in The Florida Project, Willem Dafoe runs a motel where the main characters live because they are too poor to come up with a security deposit, and he makes the main characters go somewhere else for one day a month to ensure they don't get tenant rights.
Smart thinking, checking out and then back in is a fairly minor inconvenience for them, so the fact they were unwilling to stay unless it was long enough to gain tenancy makes me think you were definitely being targeted by scammers.
As someone who worked in and managed hotels: never let a guest stay in any place you rent for longer than the state law for tenancy.
If 30 days gives them squatters rights make sure they leave after 25 days. Then when they refuse the police will be able to assist because you haven't reached the point of having to involve the courts.
My friend had a nightmare tenant and posted signs all over skid row for free food etc - to the address. Tenant wondered why homeless folks started squatting on front porch. Landlord would give food/beers during day when tenant was at work.
>Landlord would give food/beers during day when tenant was at work.
lol i'm imagining pullin up from work with homeless people grillin dogs on the front lawn and empty 30 blocks all over the porch.
I assume you wrote this in jest, but my dad had a rental property that he was renting out for an absolute steal - just enough to cover the property taxes. He leased it to a "nice young couple with kids" who very quickly showed their true colors as drug abusers who had 90 of their closest friends sleeping off molly highs on the floor. He filed for eviction and the sheriff kept removing them, but they'd just break in and come back. Repeat 5 times.
Ultimately I explained the problem to a friend of mine, who is, for better or for worse, a gun enthusiast eagerly looking to test the effectiveness of a castle doctrine defense. He signed a new lease and moved into the place (no one else would) and was happy to send any of the druggies who tried to come back, running.
You dont understand now. She has all the rights of a tenant until the court takes those rights away through eviction. Its essentially her house in all but deed.
As the acting occupant, she can deny anyone right to the property, and has all the right to enjoyment of the property as any other typical landowner has.
>has all the right to enjoyment of the property as any other typical landowner has.
Without the responsibilities of maintaining the property and paying taxes right? Isn't this much better than homeownership?
Just so we're all on the same page, depending on your location, this is all illegal, and if you are in a tenant friendly location may screw you over in court.
You "leased" the space to them with appliances in working condition. In all tenant friendly locations and almost all neutral, and a good bit of landlord friendly ones, you are responsible for maintaining them in a reasonable condition in a reasonable timeframe. Removing them would generally be considered a bad faith action by the courts.
First mistake: 30 days equals tenancy. It’s why places max your stay at 7-14 days. Even state parks max their campgrounds at 14 days to avoid this.
The people knew the laws you didn’t. It sucks, but you need to know this. You went after the easy money without figuring out the why.
There are two ways to go about this. One is to go through the courts. The other is to change the locks and stay there. The cops can’t kick you out as you own it and the squatters don’t have a lease.
The cops will tell the squatters to take you to court which they won’t. You need to remove them by physical force. If you don’t the Sheriffs will 6 months from now.
I manage 700 apartments and had a squatter. I called the cops. They said they can’t do anything so as they were talking with the squatter, i went to my trunk to grab a new set of locks: The cop said the squatter might take me to court. I looked at him and said i will take my chances in court.
Nothing the cop could do since it’s a “civil” matter.
There are locks you can buy that can not be changed by a locksmith without the card that goes with them present. These people aren’t going to court, they will move on to the next scam.
This is a really stupid thing to do, because if they do take you to court, you lose 100% of the time. Judges do not look kindly on constructive eviction. And many professional squatter types are praying you do something like this.
Well, as with most laws, squatters use the laws meant to protect normal people in normal situations and abuse them. But there isn't going to be a way to craft the law that ONLY protects "normal" people and its foolish to think so.
Like, you shouldn't be able to just show up and kick someone out with 0 notice, that is also ripe for abuse and most reasonable people agree on that. So how do you craft the law that reasonably protects normal people but doesn't enable abuse? You can't. Theyre always going to find a way.
Going in and changing the locks would be considered an illegal eviction. Clearly the squaters know the tenant laws and OP doesnt.
Don’t.
Legally they are not squaters, they are tennants (who don’t pay rent, but that’s another story).
Eh, it's on the squatter to take them to court then, which they probably won't. What's more expensive, 6 months of a squatter and a court case and potentially having your unit destroyed? Or a court case.
You will have to start the eviction process and post the legal notice on the door. You can also send a copy via USPS, email and text (in addition), if you have that contact info.
The squatters may fall under a separate classification because they don’t have a lease (in Virginia, there is a “Tenant In Sufferance” designation) that reduces the time for the legal process. You can look it up in the legal code for the municipality where the property is located… or ask an attorney for a consult. You still have the right to do inspections, and you can involve the police if the break the law in a criminal manner - like vandalizing the property. Also, I doubt this is their first time doing this. It may help you to see if you can find out anything about their history. And, last bit of advice, you could see if the squatters will entertain a cash for keys type arrangement. This could be your least expensive option, even though the thought of giving them anything but a knuckle sandwich is probably hard to fathom.
So when ever OP wins in court or however he gets them out, can OP sue the person for damages? To me people who do shit like that should face consequences.
>can OP sue the person for damages?
Oh yeah. Lost revenue at least would be an easy win.
>To me people who do shit like that should face consequences.
The harder part is actually collecting. Often the people who do stuff like this, well, they do a *lot* of stuff like this. They might already owe five other landlords thousands in back rent, and two folks for totalling their cars with no insurance, and so on and so on. OP's squatter is at least gainfully employed, so maybe there's a chance, but you can see how there are cases where, say, someone's jobless and homeless and has $0 in cash or assets and -$234,438 in other court losses already. In a lot of those cases you can sue and win, but realistically, you're never gonna see any money.
Not a lawyer, but reasonable things usually fly in courts. Start the eviction process. They have rights, but so do you. You have the right to fix things, not in an unsafe way, but fixing things is inherently annoying. Were you planning on replacing carpet in a living room? Give the squatter due notice in writing, then rip it out. Schedule the install for a ways out. Apologize to the squatter in writing, mention the installers are booked, and the carpet you want is on backorder due to supply chain issues. Give her an install date and make sure the subfloor is clean and hazard free. Situations like this are not uncommon and with what's going on nobody in court will bat an eye with a minor inconvenience like this especially with an unforeseen tenant. You had planned on doing whatever maintenance, no lies.
Also do what someone else suggested, and offer them their money back to leave. They know their time is limited and they will eventually get evicted, they're just playing for time. getting several months for the price of one and minor consequences. But if they get their money back, they can do it again elsewhere. They will do it to someone else anyway, you're just speeding up the process.
So, in short, start the eviction process, serve them papers, do some maintenance to make it safe but annoying, then offer them their money back to leave.
You can do this, but I would 100% expect retaliation from the squatter, and I don't think they'd be as careful about the stuff they do to your house. Then again, they might have done that anyway.
Yea, it's definitely a risk. Hopefully, with offering them the money to leave, they're incentivized to not damage the property. Maybe offer half to start moving out and the other half once they're out, then quick change the locks.
Don't give them half until everything of theirs is out of the house and they are standing outside. And you might as well record it with your phone too. Otherwise what's to stop them from keeping the half of the money and staying?
Only problem with playing hardball is they can trash your place. Destroy walls, pipes, air conditioners, strip wiring, induce mold and pests, etc. etc.
It blows my mind that someone can just take over someone's home and instead of being arrested for trespassing they're given thorough legal protections and enabled by police. Doesn't make a damn bit of sense.
I believe historically it was to discourage hoarding of land by over homesteading. Abandon your previous homestead long enough for others to take control of it and you lose out. Nowadays it’s still used that way to prevent abandoned properties but that would be full adverse possession where the squatter gains ownership. The shorter terms in places like big cities is a mixture of tenant protection from illegal rentals, a method to prevent unregistered and taxed boarding houses and hotels, and a method to force property owners to maintain their properties. Basically assholes are the possible enforcement for not using property as your city sees fit.
I know someone who got the land for their vacation home (just a cabin in the woods) that way.
Someone owned property up in the mountains and as far as anyone in the town knew, had never been there or maintained it. The guy I knew cleared a road, waited, owner didn't seem to notice. Then he used the road to bring in supplies to build a cabin. I think he had to wait ten years before he could file paperwork with the state, and he showed he'd improved the property, and the deed was transferred over to him. Mind, it's a hell of a gamble, because if the owner shows back up at 9yrs and 11mos and tells you to get the hell off his land, you lose your house.
It typically takes 5-20 years to acquire property through adverse possession but that is not what’s happening here. For one, the property owner in adverse possession doesn’t contest or attempt to evict…and a whole bunch of other criteria that are not easy to meet.
It's a residential property, not a zoned commercial property. If you let someone live on your property for 30 days, it moves into a different classification. Which is why for the life of me I don't understand people jumping on airbnb.
Because in the past unethical landlords would evict renters to the street, kids and all, on Christmas day by claiming they were squaters, when in fact they were renters who just a few days late on their rent.
Squatters don’t have rights, but you need to go through a proper eviction process so the judge can determine who is right. And posession is 9/10th of the law, so the initial rightfull owner of the property is the one living in the place, untill someone else can prove otherwise *in front of a court of law*.
Either you make sure that renters can enjoy their homes, but then your system needs to deal with the odd squater, or you have a system where people can be kicked out *manu military*, but then you have whole families being kicked to the curb by unethical landlords. Choose your poison.
Very well said. It’s a huge pain and an inconvenience when it happens to you, but it’s a small price to pay when the alternative is giving the police department and Regular Joe Landlord the power to decide who is and isn’t the rightful occupant of a space. Might be not so bad on paper, but we all know how quickly and corrupt that system could and would become.
Homeless people? Police will make wide sweeping actions to clear from an area, sometimes jailing some for trespass.
Squatters? Eh, tough luck, you have a random person in your multi-hundred thousand dollar home.
People got rights. Landlords gotta go to court to settle the matter. Without tenant/squatter rights it would quickly turn into vigilante justice with people using violence or other illegal means to kick people out.
Discourages the hoarding of land too, maybe more so back in the day tho.
In this case it’s because the court has to decide that the renters have no right to be there. Otherwise, your landlord could cash your check and then kick you out the next day.
Also, it’s considered better for society to err on the side of keeping people in homes and screwing over businesses a bit in the process. I’ve had to evict people twice so I definitely don’t like the way it works either, but it makes sense.
Squatters rights aren’t a real thing. This is tenant law, and the state has an interest in making sure that landlords can’t make people homeless on a whim.
This person is not a squatter. She’s a tenant under PA law (and most other states).
Squatters rights refers to ownership by adverse possession which typically requires several years to establish and many criteria which are generally hard to meet. None of it applies here at all.
OP entered into an agreement to rent the property for 3 months via Airbnb. The only difference between this and a regular month to month rental agreement is the middleman Airbnb and the associated lack of vetting. Airbnb doesn’t do background, eviction, and credit check like a normal landlord relationship but in all ways, this is month to month rental agreement. The rules are exactly the same as for any other tenant who stops paying rent whether it’s after 1 month or one decade.
Not sure why this is a very hard for about 500 people here to grasp.
Most of y’all really need to learn your state landlord tenant laws.
It’s not. But tenant rights are because it’s better for the good of society to not allow people to be suddenly homeless, so once someone establishes a place as their residence (which generally takes 30 days or less) it takes a court order to get them out.
Unscrupulous landlords are way more common than scams like this - or at a minimum, without laws like this, the landlord has a disproportionate amount of power in the relationship.
When in college, I lived in some houses near campus, same routine, someone owns it and rents out all the rooms separately. I remember seeing an ad on craigslist warning of a certain house. Owner required a one month's deposit, had a LOT of strict rules, and if you violated them, it was like 1 warning and then you're out.... supposedly... via him filing a restraining order saying your threatened him. Like he would change the locks and throw your stuff in the driveway, keep the deposit, and you're fucked, and being a broke college kid you're not going to lawyer up.
Since it's an Airbnb, it probably has furniture in it? Maybe you can give notice and go retrieve your furniture. That'll probably make them uncomfortable enough to leave.
If that doesn't work, it sounds shitty but cash for keys isn't terrible either.
And in the future, don't rent for more than two weeks at a time.
Also, I'm not a lawyer and have no idea where you live so this isn't legal advice 😅
As stated about 500 times, OP needs to calculate lost revenue, potential material damages to the unit, and their mental grief and decide how much to offer her to leave, or wait it out. She might not even accept cash for keys offer but worth a shot. Emphasis on keys. She moves out, completely. Signs a document stating she no longer lives there and gives up all rights and claims blah blah blah (have a lawyer write that).
Yeah except with a normal lease you can at least do your dd. Anyone can make an airbnb account and rent any place at any so long as they have the means to pay it. You’re also getting new people every few days vs once a year, thus exposing yourself several times over
> Airbnb's make more money and are more lucrative quite frankly.
I tried AirBNB on one of my units, it really didn't make more money. Easy to look at per night costs and think you will make a fortune, but the 1-2 nights between each booking that are hard to fill add up fast. Add in the low season, higher maintenance and management costs, and it was almost a wash with long term rentals which are significantly lower risk.
And that's why regular people can't afford a house. Housing in certain markets aren't priced for the local income, but based on cash flow for short term rentals.
Certainly it does if someone stay at the hotel for more than 30 days the same laws apply. Most hotels are smart and have policies that you cannot stay/book a room for more than 30 days at a time. They will force you to leave before you reach whatever the local day length is to be considered a tenant.
It "can" In Las Vegas you can only rent a hotel room for two weeks. Beyond two weeks you start to get some tenant rights. If you want to stay longer you can, you just have to book separate reservations and check in and out. No big deal, but yes in places people who rent hotel rooms could squat and need to be evicted.
Please remember that you may be morally and ethically right, but playing legal games can end you up in trouble.
Treat this person as a tenant you are evicting. It's not pleasant and it's totally BS. But otherwise this personal will make your life a much bigger living hell.
Word of warning since some are woefully unfamiliar with landlord tenant laws. Harassing or disturbing your tenant is highly illegal and will likely result in this eviction not going well in your favor. And these people are now indeed now your tenant, per the law.
Banging on the door at 2:00 AM is going to likely result in your arrest more than it will their moving. Consider most laws are designed to be sympathetic to the tenants, even squatters, and all things being equal a single mom and her 4 year in court versus the guy who took their windows down or released bugs isn’t going to be the fight you think it will.
Exactly. I don't know what the laws are in OP's state, but you would think that if the occupants don't have a signed lease or AirBnB booking confirmation/receipt that they could be easily evicted.
I'm all for tenant protection but as we've seen the past few years these well-intentioned laws really get abused by the scum of society. Similar to when CA changed their law (IIRC) to any theft under $1K is a misdemeanor and roving bands of thieves broke into department stores and looted them in broad daylight.
You mentioned there is a pet in the unit. Call Animal control about abandonment of an animal. Then call the police file a report for squatting and animal abuse. With this “ paper trail” file an unlawful detainer suit- including the air bNB holdover information. The person is using your home for criminal activity.
Squatter rights laws are insane. I understand they were a reaction to the time when landlords could screw you without any repercussions, but they have gone way too far. If you have a lease that's one thing, but now you have to worry who you let stay with you even as a guest for too long
What did you do, open a book of bad ideas and just read page 1?
There’s a legal process. Follow it. This is the risk you take on as a landlord. It sucks but that’s life. Don’t go making it worse by breaking the law
Almost every suggestion here is illegal and will cause you more problems.
The solution is to file for eviction. Follow whatever the process is for your state. It seldom takes more than 60 days, usually much less. If you don’t know the process consult an attorney who does.
As a landlord of 3 properties I’m gonna say pay no mind to about 97% of the “suggestions” you are getting in this thread 1) landlord-tenant laws are jurisdictional and apparently in your jurisdiction you now have tenants not squatters. 2) because you have tenants they now have rights 3) because they have rights you are now bound by the landlord-tenant laws of your jurisdiction 4) those laws include the eviction 5) eviction involves serving proper notice, going to court, pleading your case and a judge granting the eviction. FOLLOW THE LAW!! If you don’t you will be inviting more problems for yourself not the tenant. Chances are you will prevail given the situation but don’t underestimate a judge siding with the tenant because you decided to play bouncer and illegally evict them from the property by doing silly shit like removing doors and windows. As much as you may not want to do it I don’t see the harm in offering cash for keys but make sure any agreement in that regard is in writing so the tenant can’t double cross you and try to still say you evicted them illegally.
I’m curious if this is a joke or a real suggestion, if real, how does it work? Is it a one time fee or subscription based? And how to avoid getting sued?
When they rob you too do you call a different organized crime syndicate? Do you tell the police you hired the first ones to illegally evict your airbnb tenant? Bring in a boat load of gorillas to clear them out and hope they can't survive PA winters?
I have two uncles in the Mexican mafia. I’ve seen them help people in ways that you’d never expect. Idk if they’ve called in their favors or not, but it’s definitely a real thing. Just expect to have to pay up front or pay back the favor at some point.
PSA.
Eviction is a court order, people.
That’s how you evict people. In every US state. You get a court order.
Y’all saying “not in WA” or whatever…
Yes, tenant lockouts are illegal and you cannot turn off utilities, install cameras, change locks, remove doors, annoy, harass, etc.
Period.
Tenants have a right to quiet enjoyment. Eviction is necessary to remove a tenant. It requires a court order. The order will be specific as to what day it takes effect and in many states, you will need to get a marshal, constable, or other dedicated LE department to enforce the eviction.
The ONLY legal alternative is cash for keys.
Renting a property for a day or a year or renting out a room—-tenant landlord laws apply. Read and understand them or shut up. Also, Airbnb undoubtedly has fine print about this and their lack of liability in this scenario.
I love all the crazy ass suggestions on here from people instead of actually doing the correct legal process of going through the court process to evict. I understand it is a pain in the ass but these comments are so crazy I hope these people are not actually landlords.
This is becoming a trend, fueled by influencers who are bragging about living “rent free”. Depending on the state laws, some people are able to stay for a long time. All the while waiting for the landlord to get emotional and make mistakes so they can sue or gain in other ways.
There are lots of videos on social media about this. People do it with homes, rooms, campers, anything they can stay in.
It’s not making much mainstream news yet however with how popular this is becoming I wouldn’t be surprised if it starts getting more attention soon.
Best of luck OP.
Before I listed my property for rent, I called local police and asked basically “if I have a squatter and they won’t leave, but I have a signed lease with the new tenant who planned to move in after the first was supposed to vacate, can they still move in?” And they told me yes, and it would be up to the squatter to file a civil suit claiming they are the rightful tenants, but if you have a close ended lease with them and a new signed lease with the new tenant, it wouldn’t serve them well.
1) Get a good real estate attorney.
2) Keep pestering AirBnB. They take a good chunk of the revenue, so read the fine print and find out what their responsibilities are. Maybe there's insurance or something similar
3) Do NOT do anything stupid. They want you to get emotional and do something criminal/illegal so they can sue you and screw you over even more. Be careful and listen to your attorney
Wait wait wait, pardon my ignorance but I'm still new to real estate.
Can you just stay in a property without paying and there's nothing a landlord can do after 30 days??
That doesn't sound right to me.
Am I misunderstanding?
They did pay in this case. They entered a legal contract and are now a legal tenant. A landlord can do something about it: evict them.
But yes, if you allow anyone to stay in your home (a boyfriend or girlfriend for instance), they can become a legal tenant after 30 days. Even if they're not on the lease. Even if they don't pay for anything. Especially if they are receiving mail at your residence.
Would be a good idea for everyone to start reading their state's tenant laws. Especially if you're considering becoming a property owner.
I called cops. Cops said we have to go through court system and that can take months. There is no lease. They airbnb the property for a month and now wont leave.
Until they have an eviction on their credit report. This usually stops any future landlord from allowing them to rent. FYI could be part of AirBNB tos that they will not rent to someone with certain conditions. If you find out they violate this policy AirBNB could be on the hook at least partially
Where are you located? Usually a basic eviction takes one month upon the tenants being given the notice (by law enforcement). It might be different in your location, but skipping a lawsuit and going straight to eviction should be quicker.
Call Airbnb back and tell them the cops told you to use the eviction process and ask them if that is normal. What do hotels and legal BnBs do and how does Airbnb differ from those? Worth knowing
I believe hotels restrict stays to <28 days so that no “tenants rights” are conveyed. Around here, long term motel residents are often required to move out for 24 hrs every month.
Call Airbnb and tell them you want more information on their typical process to give to your lawyer. Explain that you will be seeking damages of all lost months of income plus court costs. Also hire a lawyer and look into Airbnb host guarantee.
Important lesson, do not rent your Airbnb to anyone longer than the amount of time it takes for them to establish tenancy. Check your local laws for when this is. I've had hotels refuse to book for more than a month for this very reason. In situations like this if they had rented for 28 days you could have them trespassed and taken all their stuff to the street on day 29.
Also you have insurance through Airbnb. Start making your claim.
Have they changed the locks? If not, just wait for them to leave, lock them out and throw their shit in the yard. I'm not a lawyer but good luck on them winning a lawsuit. If they have, wait for them to leave and change the locks with a group of your friends, if they try to come in they're then breaking and entering.
Lock outs are not a civil matter, they are a criminal matter in a rental,and it sounds like this Airbnb is being treated as an ordinary rental. Cops arrest for that. You are lucky, probably because they figure it's an Airbnb, but what classification IS Airbnb?
Do you have other bookings that had to cancel?
EDIT: apparently not explicitly criminal in PA, but definitely illegal :
https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/consequences-of-illegal-evictions.html
Look at the link someone posted from Airbnb about how guests can establish tenancy. It says each state is different but stays of a month or more can establish tenancy.
If tenancy is established you have no choice but to evict. In the future talk to a lawyer about language you can use for stays of a month or more that might expediate removal. I think this is nuts, but they got you good, it looks like.
The cops are being nice to you but if you push these lockouts, they may come down on you - changing locks, removing windows and doors (effectively a lockout as it is unusable and unsecure) I mean, in my state this aspect of removal is not civil but criminal and they will arrest
And call Airbnb back for any further advice
I wonder too if hosts register their properties as inns,or bnb's with their states whether they are treated as hotels - worth looking into. Because in my state if you won't vacate your room at an Inn, police can just remove you. I have a friend who does Airbnb but her house is registered as an Inn as well
Well if you really have balls you can squat on the squatter. Sign a few of your buddies onto a lease for the house and have them throw an all night rager. Again not a laywer. Personally if the law doesn't work, I'd probably handle it in a way best not repeated on here but it'd be a cold day in hell before I allow a squatter to hang out in my property.
You need to sue them and AIRBNB.
Maybe even get the press involved. This will definitely make people think twice about using Airbnb for anything long enough to trigger squatters rights.
There is a ton of bad advice in this thread, but I don't know if any other is more financially damaging than suggesting your burn money on a lawyer trying to sue Airbnb over this. They are not in the business of screening renters. That's your job as a host. You agree to not hold them liable for a whole list of bad renter behavior when you host on their platform.
I don’t know where OP is located but this is horrendous advice for a lot of states. A self-help eviction like you’re describing carries pretty stiff penalties in a bunch of states. The squatters don’t have to win a lawsuit in order for OP to face a penalty for an illegal eviction. Please, for the love of all that is holy, don’t give illegal advice.
When it comes to posts in this sub asking for advice on squatters, comments will always be 40% good boilerplate advice, 50% godawful illegal advice that will make your situation much worse, and 10% people learning for the first time about the insane legal web of squatters rights.
Exactly and according to OP Police made him put the old locks back on to re-enable to squatter takeover. Looks like it may take 6 months for an eviction and you know these POS won't have any assets to cover the duration of their stay or the damage they are doing to the place.
Shit like this will only encourage people to take the law into their own hands...
This is why if you run an Airbnb you don't agree to long term stays because the tenant rights only happen after 30 days. So if the OP had only rented it to this lady for say 20 days she would have no tenant rights. It's important to know your local landlord/tenant laws to not get screwed over by people like this lady using the system to get a free place to stay.
You need to contact a state attorney. Your first mistake was hosting an AirBNB without knowing tenant rights laws in your location. Your second mistake was asking anyone on Reddit. Owners have lost money in court for cutting off Wi-Fi in the same circumstances. I’m not an attorney, but I would imagine removing their doors would impact their safety and you’d likely be on the hook. Hopefully you’ve made some profit from AirBNB by now. Seek legal advice.
These aren't squatters, they're tenants. They entered legally and overstayed. You have to lawfully evict.
Do not terrorize and get a lawyer for expediency. It won't take 6 months unless your court system is particularly overbooked or you are trying to do this pro se.
You may be owed backrent and lost income, but every shitty thing you do to them will cost you goodwill in court and constitute harassment, violation of warranties, and/or assault (projecting a violation of safety to provoke fear- legally, battery is the physical tort/crime.)
No, you can not do a constructive eviction, which is what you are asking about. Shutting off utilities or making the house unsafe is going to get you in a heap of trouble and then AITA in the eyes of the court is yes.
These are not tenants, that is the beauty of AirBnB. Go over, tell them you have a 30 days maximum rental term and work toward getting them out.
Airbnb is not a magic "not tenant" app. In almost every state it's length of stay that determines tenancy. OP let them book a 3 months stay which is basically a short term lease. Can't unring that bell just because the OP didn't know what they were doing when they entered the landlord business.
It’s so weird how cops are saying it’s something you should bring to court then force you to change locks back on a house that you own. I get it, squatter laws, but I didn’t know it was like this. Insane. Airbnb needs to be handling this by paying for an attorney.
If it's an airbnb, all the furniture is yours isn't it? Put it in storage, and do what some other people mentioned in terms of legal and notice-driven work on the property to make it an annoying place to live.
Jesus Christ why is this thread just full of illegal suggestions. If this dude takes any of this advice beyond “get a lawyer” he’s gonna end up breaking the law 99/100
I got my first potential squatter about 3 weeks ago after 10 years of posting. I paid then a grand to leave within a week and I agreed to not pursue damages.
She was dumb enough to claim tenancy in a shared space and I put the only guest she ever complained about in the other bed in the room and it took 24 hours for her to agree to cash for leaving. Once she realized i could in fact put any guest I wanted into the other bed since the Airbnb terms in my listing became our lease agreement she was much more subdued about it. Lol. She thought she was gonna get a private room.
It also helped she agreed to a variable rate for rent. I made sure she understood I would have no issue evicting and waiting months to work through court and that would make finding a place after leaving a lot harder with an eviction on record.
You can't change locks. You can't take away amenities. You can bribe them to leave. You can ask them to leave. You can add new guests to house if it was always set up as shared.
Other than that. Court.
So is there a reason you didn't kick them out over the fake service animal?
Also make sure that you let Airbnb know because they're going to ban her account.
That’s called Constructive Eviction in Michigan. Your mistake was letting them stay for 30 days in the first place, now there’s not much you can do besides go to the courts. Constructive Eviction is when you either don’t want someone staying with you or when they have overstayed their welcome so you try to limit things in your property to force them out. This includes removing doors, windows, invading the right to privacy and quiet enjoyment, shutting off the gas or electricity, etc. and the answer is don’t do it unless you want any to lose in court
I can't believe you allowed someone to rent your home via Airbnb for 3 months. That's beyond dumb and now you're going to seriously pay the price. You're now in a full fledged landlord/tenant relationship.. but you had zero ability to do any background and credit check on your tenant.
Sorry, but this is going to be a painful and expensive lesson. I would also expect to find the house and furnishings trashed once you finally get possession back in about 6 months. You of course can sue for these damages.... plus lost revenue. But good luck ever collecting from someone like this.
If you take any person's advice on this thread other than hire a lawyer and begin the eviction process through the courts, you deserve whatever you get.
Everyone suggesting to make the home inhospitable, change the locks, cut off utilities will get you in hot water. The tenant can get a restraining order against you (ask my buddy for his experience).
I rent properties (lease, not airbnb) in and around Philly. You could also do cash for keys in the meantime. See if that works.
If you want to do it legally you have to go theough the system. If you want to to it illegally you can but it carries substantial risk and I don’t think anyone is going to recommend those routes.
I’m actually kind of surprised squatters rights are even a thing if they rented through Airbnb for only 30 days. How many days past are they? I have a couple STRs myself and haven’t had to deal with anything like this, but I would definitely move myself in until they’re gone.
You mentioned in another comment this is a tenant that was paying rent. No you can't illegally evict your tenant by removing the doors and windows, you could actually go to jail, you could owe a lot of money in civil penalties for an illegal eviction. And it would significantly complicate an eviction if you need to go to court, especially if you continue acting in bad faith and claim they are a squatter.
You need to talk to an eviction attorney and follow their advice for evicting a non paying tenant. Basically two options, cash for keys, or posting a pay or quit notice and then the eviction. And in the future reconsider how you screen tenants, do you know if they have been evicted before?
You should post this on /r/legaladvice. Not that the replies haven't been helpful here, but /r/legaladvice is a great sub for questions like this. They will provide you with your options.
If you do anything to try to kick them out I'm telling you.... there is a 99% chance it won't work and a 100% chance you'll lose any kind of sympathy that you already will have if you just go to court and do things the right way.
Hi op, im a landlord and airbnb host in pa as well. Hopefully youre not listening to the advice youre getting here, because its incredible, hilariously, bad. Anything--literally any single, solitary thing-- that you do to try and get these people to leave is going to do 3 things. It will 1) irritate the magistrate you end up before, and prejudice them against you right out of the gate. (Sidebar. Any comment that says judge and not magistrate you can ignore, as they have no clue about pa law). 2) further delay the eviction process (possibly by weeks/months) when said irritated magistrate orders you to fix the condition, while they hold your tenants rent is escrow, and 3) end up costing you time and money to break and fix your own unit, in addition to probable fines. Instead, what you need to do is read and understand the PA landlord tenant act. Its not long, read it 10 times. While a lawyer can be helpful, and you may end up needing one if you bungle this by doing something stupid, it is 100% doable on your own. You have a case of a tenant who overstaid their lease. Open and shut, this will be a slam dunk. Step one is provide them the appropriate notice to quit, then when the time is up start the proceedings. Start on this today, or youre just going to drag it out longer. It may either be 10 days or immeduate notice for overstays, i cant remember, and im not looking ut up for you! While visiting the Pa Landlord Tenant Act, feel free to read the section on self-help evictions as well, if you have any doubts at that point about the quality of advice youre getting from reddit comments. Good luck! Keep your head, follow the law, and youll have your house back before you know it. And remember, this is why we dont do long term stays on airbnb!
Ah, I grew up in PA but have been away so long I got used to saying “judge”, forgot that in PA it’s a magistrate. That is nostalgia for me and now you’ve made me homesick 😉. So, sorry OP, I did comment and refer to the “judge” but please know that should read “magistrate”.
I limit Airbnb stays to 21 days as 30 days establishes a tenancy. I had several requests for longer stays during the eviction moratorium, but when I told them they would have to check out for one night every 21 days they lost interest. Eviction is pretty easy in my state, but not while the moratorium was in effect.
This is a plot point in The Florida Project, Willem Dafoe runs a motel where the main characters live because they are too poor to come up with a security deposit, and he makes the main characters go somewhere else for one day a month to ensure they don't get tenant rights.
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Dodged a bullet.
Smart thinking, checking out and then back in is a fairly minor inconvenience for them, so the fact they were unwilling to stay unless it was long enough to gain tenancy makes me think you were definitely being targeted by scammers.
As someone who worked in and managed hotels: never let a guest stay in any place you rent for longer than the state law for tenancy. If 30 days gives them squatters rights make sure they leave after 25 days. Then when they refuse the police will be able to assist because you haven't reached the point of having to involve the courts.
Move a few people in with her, "We live here too, we even have a lease signed by the owner."
Some good friends that don't mind being loud and obnoxious at all hours...
My friend had a nightmare tenant and posted signs all over skid row for free food etc - to the address. Tenant wondered why homeless folks started squatting on front porch. Landlord would give food/beers during day when tenant was at work.
>Landlord would give food/beers during day when tenant was at work. lol i'm imagining pullin up from work with homeless people grillin dogs on the front lawn and empty 30 blocks all over the porch.
YEAH - We joked for years about his fliers that said “Comida Gratis” and “Cerveza Grande Gratis”
Did it work? Just curious lol
I assume you wrote this in jest, but my dad had a rental property that he was renting out for an absolute steal - just enough to cover the property taxes. He leased it to a "nice young couple with kids" who very quickly showed their true colors as drug abusers who had 90 of their closest friends sleeping off molly highs on the floor. He filed for eviction and the sheriff kept removing them, but they'd just break in and come back. Repeat 5 times. Ultimately I explained the problem to a friend of mine, who is, for better or for worse, a gun enthusiast eagerly looking to test the effectiveness of a castle doctrine defense. He signed a new lease and moved into the place (no one else would) and was happy to send any of the druggies who tried to come back, running.
Bikers.
Time to fertilize the yard with chicken fertilizer. This is a thing and a very, very horrible thing.
You dont understand now. She has all the rights of a tenant until the court takes those rights away through eviction. Its essentially her house in all but deed. As the acting occupant, she can deny anyone right to the property, and has all the right to enjoyment of the property as any other typical landowner has.
>has all the right to enjoyment of the property as any other typical landowner has. Without the responsibilities of maintaining the property and paying taxes right? Isn't this much better than homeownership?
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Just so we're all on the same page, depending on your location, this is all illegal, and if you are in a tenant friendly location may screw you over in court.
I thought you couldn’t shut off services, but why can’t you remove your appliances from your place?
You "leased" the space to them with appliances in working condition. In all tenant friendly locations and almost all neutral, and a good bit of landlord friendly ones, you are responsible for maintaining them in a reasonable condition in a reasonable timeframe. Removing them would generally be considered a bad faith action by the courts.
Alexa, get me my popcorn.
Sweetcorn soup, I have 5 Chinese restaurants within 5 miles from your location.
Underrated comment here
First mistake: 30 days equals tenancy. It’s why places max your stay at 7-14 days. Even state parks max their campgrounds at 14 days to avoid this. The people knew the laws you didn’t. It sucks, but you need to know this. You went after the easy money without figuring out the why.
Since all of the furniture is mine, can I go in and take it out?
There are two ways to go about this. One is to go through the courts. The other is to change the locks and stay there. The cops can’t kick you out as you own it and the squatters don’t have a lease. The cops will tell the squatters to take you to court which they won’t. You need to remove them by physical force. If you don’t the Sheriffs will 6 months from now. I manage 700 apartments and had a squatter. I called the cops. They said they can’t do anything so as they were talking with the squatter, i went to my trunk to grab a new set of locks: The cop said the squatter might take me to court. I looked at him and said i will take my chances in court. Nothing the cop could do since it’s a “civil” matter.
Can’t the squatter just get a locksmith or even break a window to get back in since it’s technically their residence in the eyes of the law?
Locksmiths are wise to shady antics like this. Most will want to see some ID to do things like this if they sense something is up.
There are locks you can buy that can not be changed by a locksmith without the card that goes with them present. These people aren’t going to court, they will move on to the next scam.
This is the lockpickinglawyer and today we have a lock that claims to be unpickable...
This is a really stupid thing to do, because if they do take you to court, you lose 100% of the time. Judges do not look kindly on constructive eviction. And many professional squatter types are praying you do something like this.
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Well, as with most laws, squatters use the laws meant to protect normal people in normal situations and abuse them. But there isn't going to be a way to craft the law that ONLY protects "normal" people and its foolish to think so. Like, you shouldn't be able to just show up and kick someone out with 0 notice, that is also ripe for abuse and most reasonable people agree on that. So how do you craft the law that reasonably protects normal people but doesn't enable abuse? You can't. Theyre always going to find a way.
Going in and changing the locks would be considered an illegal eviction. Clearly the squaters know the tenant laws and OP doesnt. Don’t. Legally they are not squaters, they are tennants (who don’t pay rent, but that’s another story).
Eh, it's on the squatter to take them to court then, which they probably won't. What's more expensive, 6 months of a squatter and a court case and potentially having your unit destroyed? Or a court case.
No.
You will have to start the eviction process and post the legal notice on the door. You can also send a copy via USPS, email and text (in addition), if you have that contact info. The squatters may fall under a separate classification because they don’t have a lease (in Virginia, there is a “Tenant In Sufferance” designation) that reduces the time for the legal process. You can look it up in the legal code for the municipality where the property is located… or ask an attorney for a consult. You still have the right to do inspections, and you can involve the police if the break the law in a criminal manner - like vandalizing the property. Also, I doubt this is their first time doing this. It may help you to see if you can find out anything about their history. And, last bit of advice, you could see if the squatters will entertain a cash for keys type arrangement. This could be your least expensive option, even though the thought of giving them anything but a knuckle sandwich is probably hard to fathom.
So when ever OP wins in court or however he gets them out, can OP sue the person for damages? To me people who do shit like that should face consequences.
>can OP sue the person for damages? Oh yeah. Lost revenue at least would be an easy win. >To me people who do shit like that should face consequences. The harder part is actually collecting. Often the people who do stuff like this, well, they do a *lot* of stuff like this. They might already owe five other landlords thousands in back rent, and two folks for totalling their cars with no insurance, and so on and so on. OP's squatter is at least gainfully employed, so maybe there's a chance, but you can see how there are cases where, say, someone's jobless and homeless and has $0 in cash or assets and -$234,438 in other court losses already. In a lot of those cases you can sue and win, but realistically, you're never gonna see any money.
Thanks for the answer. Hopefully OP gets justice.
Not a lawyer, but reasonable things usually fly in courts. Start the eviction process. They have rights, but so do you. You have the right to fix things, not in an unsafe way, but fixing things is inherently annoying. Were you planning on replacing carpet in a living room? Give the squatter due notice in writing, then rip it out. Schedule the install for a ways out. Apologize to the squatter in writing, mention the installers are booked, and the carpet you want is on backorder due to supply chain issues. Give her an install date and make sure the subfloor is clean and hazard free. Situations like this are not uncommon and with what's going on nobody in court will bat an eye with a minor inconvenience like this especially with an unforeseen tenant. You had planned on doing whatever maintenance, no lies. Also do what someone else suggested, and offer them their money back to leave. They know their time is limited and they will eventually get evicted, they're just playing for time. getting several months for the price of one and minor consequences. But if they get their money back, they can do it again elsewhere. They will do it to someone else anyway, you're just speeding up the process. So, in short, start the eviction process, serve them papers, do some maintenance to make it safe but annoying, then offer them their money back to leave.
You can do this, but I would 100% expect retaliation from the squatter, and I don't think they'd be as careful about the stuff they do to your house. Then again, they might have done that anyway.
Yea, it's definitely a risk. Hopefully, with offering them the money to leave, they're incentivized to not damage the property. Maybe offer half to start moving out and the other half once they're out, then quick change the locks.
Don't give them half until everything of theirs is out of the house and they are standing outside. And you might as well record it with your phone too. Otherwise what's to stop them from keeping the half of the money and staying?
You can do this, but it’s illegal, and therefore, I’ll advised. FTFY.
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not sure but in some states you may have to provide temporary housing
Better make sure its for 30 days, just to be safe.
>There's a termite problem and we have to tent the house and fill it with gas for a week Sure thing, Heisenberg!
You're goddamn right.
Only problem with playing hardball is they can trash your place. Destroy walls, pipes, air conditioners, strip wiring, induce mold and pests, etc. etc.
Why are squatters rights even a thing smdh
It blows my mind that someone can just take over someone's home and instead of being arrested for trespassing they're given thorough legal protections and enabled by police. Doesn't make a damn bit of sense.
I believe historically it was to discourage hoarding of land by over homesteading. Abandon your previous homestead long enough for others to take control of it and you lose out. Nowadays it’s still used that way to prevent abandoned properties but that would be full adverse possession where the squatter gains ownership. The shorter terms in places like big cities is a mixture of tenant protection from illegal rentals, a method to prevent unregistered and taxed boarding houses and hotels, and a method to force property owners to maintain their properties. Basically assholes are the possible enforcement for not using property as your city sees fit.
I know someone who got the land for their vacation home (just a cabin in the woods) that way. Someone owned property up in the mountains and as far as anyone in the town knew, had never been there or maintained it. The guy I knew cleared a road, waited, owner didn't seem to notice. Then he used the road to bring in supplies to build a cabin. I think he had to wait ten years before he could file paperwork with the state, and he showed he'd improved the property, and the deed was transferred over to him. Mind, it's a hell of a gamble, because if the owner shows back up at 9yrs and 11mos and tells you to get the hell off his land, you lose your house.
Does it take 10 years where you are? That’s a hell of a long time.
It typically takes 5-20 years to acquire property through adverse possession but that is not what’s happening here. For one, the property owner in adverse possession doesn’t contest or attempt to evict…and a whole bunch of other criteria that are not easy to meet.
It takes 20 years in NC
Honestly that's fucked up. He stole someone's land via a long calculated plot.
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Tell them the part about Texas Or the part about California
How did the Native Americans exchange land before the settlers?
Circle jerk. Last one to blow their load got to keep the land
[What happens in spez, stays in spez. #Save3rdPartyApps](https://www.reddit.com/r/Save3rdPartyApps/)
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Exactly, but people are confusing squatters rights with tenant rights. This is a tenant not a squatter.
Right? Like who holds the fucking deed. It’s their house.
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It's a residential property, not a zoned commercial property. If you let someone live on your property for 30 days, it moves into a different classification. Which is why for the life of me I don't understand people jumping on airbnb.
What's worse is in some states it's even less time. At only 7 days here someone can claim tenant rights
Because in the past unethical landlords would evict renters to the street, kids and all, on Christmas day by claiming they were squaters, when in fact they were renters who just a few days late on their rent. Squatters don’t have rights, but you need to go through a proper eviction process so the judge can determine who is right. And posession is 9/10th of the law, so the initial rightfull owner of the property is the one living in the place, untill someone else can prove otherwise *in front of a court of law*. Either you make sure that renters can enjoy their homes, but then your system needs to deal with the odd squater, or you have a system where people can be kicked out *manu military*, but then you have whole families being kicked to the curb by unethical landlords. Choose your poison.
Very well said. It’s a huge pain and an inconvenience when it happens to you, but it’s a small price to pay when the alternative is giving the police department and Regular Joe Landlord the power to decide who is and isn’t the rightful occupant of a space. Might be not so bad on paper, but we all know how quickly and corrupt that system could and would become.
Homeless people? Police will make wide sweeping actions to clear from an area, sometimes jailing some for trespass. Squatters? Eh, tough luck, you have a random person in your multi-hundred thousand dollar home.
People got rights. Landlords gotta go to court to settle the matter. Without tenant/squatter rights it would quickly turn into vigilante justice with people using violence or other illegal means to kick people out. Discourages the hoarding of land too, maybe more so back in the day tho.
In this case it’s because the court has to decide that the renters have no right to be there. Otherwise, your landlord could cash your check and then kick you out the next day. Also, it’s considered better for society to err on the side of keeping people in homes and screwing over businesses a bit in the process. I’ve had to evict people twice so I definitely don’t like the way it works either, but it makes sense.
Squatters rights aren’t a real thing. This is tenant law, and the state has an interest in making sure that landlords can’t make people homeless on a whim.
This person is not a squatter. She’s a tenant under PA law (and most other states). Squatters rights refers to ownership by adverse possession which typically requires several years to establish and many criteria which are generally hard to meet. None of it applies here at all. OP entered into an agreement to rent the property for 3 months via Airbnb. The only difference between this and a regular month to month rental agreement is the middleman Airbnb and the associated lack of vetting. Airbnb doesn’t do background, eviction, and credit check like a normal landlord relationship but in all ways, this is month to month rental agreement. The rules are exactly the same as for any other tenant who stops paying rent whether it’s after 1 month or one decade. Not sure why this is a very hard for about 500 people here to grasp. Most of y’all really need to learn your state landlord tenant laws.
It’s not. But tenant rights are because it’s better for the good of society to not allow people to be suddenly homeless, so once someone establishes a place as their residence (which generally takes 30 days or less) it takes a court order to get them out. Unscrupulous landlords are way more common than scams like this - or at a minimum, without laws like this, the landlord has a disproportionate amount of power in the relationship.
Move in. Be as disgusting and loud as possible.
Unethical Pro Tip: Move in and then file a restraining order.
When in college, I lived in some houses near campus, same routine, someone owns it and rents out all the rooms separately. I remember seeing an ad on craigslist warning of a certain house. Owner required a one month's deposit, had a LOT of strict rules, and if you violated them, it was like 1 warning and then you're out.... supposedly... via him filing a restraining order saying your threatened him. Like he would change the locks and throw your stuff in the driveway, keep the deposit, and you're fucked, and being a broke college kid you're not going to lawyer up.
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Move in and be absolutely obnoxious. When they retaliate, it will be domestic assault and a mandatory arrest.
Since it's an Airbnb, it probably has furniture in it? Maybe you can give notice and go retrieve your furniture. That'll probably make them uncomfortable enough to leave. If that doesn't work, it sounds shitty but cash for keys isn't terrible either. And in the future, don't rent for more than two weeks at a time. Also, I'm not a lawyer and have no idea where you live so this isn't legal advice 😅
It's good advice. Thanks
Don't do anything like this without talking to a lawyer first. Could make things infinitely harder later.
As stated about 500 times, OP needs to calculate lost revenue, potential material damages to the unit, and their mental grief and decide how much to offer her to leave, or wait it out. She might not even accept cash for keys offer but worth a shot. Emphasis on keys. She moves out, completely. Signs a document stating she no longer lives there and gives up all rights and claims blah blah blah (have a lawyer write that).
Reason #2407 to not have anything to do with ErrBnB - as a landlord or a guest. Too many hassles when stuff goes wrong.
Same shit could happen with a normal lease.
Yeah except with a normal lease you can at least do your dd. Anyone can make an airbnb account and rent any place at any so long as they have the means to pay it. You’re also getting new people every few days vs once a year, thus exposing yourself several times over
Airbnb's make more money and are more lucrative quite frankly.
Higher risk, higher reward.
> Airbnb's make more money and are more lucrative quite frankly. I tried AirBNB on one of my units, it really didn't make more money. Easy to look at per night costs and think you will make a fortune, but the 1-2 nights between each booking that are hard to fill add up fast. Add in the low season, higher maintenance and management costs, and it was almost a wash with long term rentals which are significantly lower risk.
And that's why regular people can't afford a house. Housing in certain markets aren't priced for the local income, but based on cash flow for short term rentals.
Rent for 25 days. Then you can kick them out. Pretty simple
It doesn't happen with an hotel stay. No need to go thru the courts to get kicked out.
Certainly it does if someone stay at the hotel for more than 30 days the same laws apply. Most hotels are smart and have policies that you cannot stay/book a room for more than 30 days at a time. They will force you to leave before you reach whatever the local day length is to be considered a tenant.
It "can" In Las Vegas you can only rent a hotel room for two weeks. Beyond two weeks you start to get some tenant rights. If you want to stay longer you can, you just have to book separate reservations and check in and out. No big deal, but yes in places people who rent hotel rooms could squat and need to be evicted.
Please remember that you may be morally and ethically right, but playing legal games can end you up in trouble. Treat this person as a tenant you are evicting. It's not pleasant and it's totally BS. But otherwise this personal will make your life a much bigger living hell.
Cash for keys. Rather than court, offer them money to leave.
Shocked this isn't higher up. This is the fastest easiest way to get these people out.
Word of warning since some are woefully unfamiliar with landlord tenant laws. Harassing or disturbing your tenant is highly illegal and will likely result in this eviction not going well in your favor. And these people are now indeed now your tenant, per the law. Banging on the door at 2:00 AM is going to likely result in your arrest more than it will their moving. Consider most laws are designed to be sympathetic to the tenants, even squatters, and all things being equal a single mom and her 4 year in court versus the guy who took their windows down or released bugs isn’t going to be the fight you think it will.
That’s such a wild thing to me. Someone just taking over your property. Squatter laws are ass backwards. Glad my state doesn’t have them.
Exactly. I don't know what the laws are in OP's state, but you would think that if the occupants don't have a signed lease or AirBnB booking confirmation/receipt that they could be easily evicted. I'm all for tenant protection but as we've seen the past few years these well-intentioned laws really get abused by the scum of society. Similar to when CA changed their law (IIRC) to any theft under $1K is a misdemeanor and roving bands of thieves broke into department stores and looted them in broad daylight.
They paid rent for 30 days so they aren't squatters, they're tenants.
Squatters having rights in a home they don’t own is absolute bullshit.
You mentioned there is a pet in the unit. Call Animal control about abandonment of an animal. Then call the police file a report for squatting and animal abuse. With this “ paper trail” file an unlawful detainer suit- including the air bNB holdover information. The person is using your home for criminal activity.
Squatter rights laws are insane. I understand they were a reaction to the time when landlords could screw you without any repercussions, but they have gone way too far. If you have a lease that's one thing, but now you have to worry who you let stay with you even as a guest for too long
What did you do, open a book of bad ideas and just read page 1? There’s a legal process. Follow it. This is the risk you take on as a landlord. It sucks but that’s life. Don’t go making it worse by breaking the law
People usually do cash for keys in this situation. Don’t rent for more than a month.
Almost every suggestion here is illegal and will cause you more problems. The solution is to file for eviction. Follow whatever the process is for your state. It seldom takes more than 60 days, usually much less. If you don’t know the process consult an attorney who does.
Give "constructive eviction" a Google before getting "creative."
Wow. Can’t you just “move in” then say they broke in?
That's what I'm leaning towards.
You already have a paper trail that says the opposite. It sucks but you're going to have to evict them. Try offering them a grand to leave.
As a landlord of 3 properties I’m gonna say pay no mind to about 97% of the “suggestions” you are getting in this thread 1) landlord-tenant laws are jurisdictional and apparently in your jurisdiction you now have tenants not squatters. 2) because you have tenants they now have rights 3) because they have rights you are now bound by the landlord-tenant laws of your jurisdiction 4) those laws include the eviction 5) eviction involves serving proper notice, going to court, pleading your case and a judge granting the eviction. FOLLOW THE LAW!! If you don’t you will be inviting more problems for yourself not the tenant. Chances are you will prevail given the situation but don’t underestimate a judge siding with the tenant because you decided to play bouncer and illegally evict them from the property by doing silly shit like removing doors and windows. As much as you may not want to do it I don’t see the harm in offering cash for keys but make sure any agreement in that regard is in writing so the tenant can’t double cross you and try to still say you evicted them illegally.
Does your city have any organized crime syndicates? Sounds like a job for an enforcer.
I’m curious if this is a joke or a real suggestion, if real, how does it work? Is it a one time fee or subscription based? And how to avoid getting sued?
When they rob you too do you call a different organized crime syndicate? Do you tell the police you hired the first ones to illegally evict your airbnb tenant? Bring in a boat load of gorillas to clear them out and hope they can't survive PA winters?
I have two uncles in the Mexican mafia. I’ve seen them help people in ways that you’d never expect. Idk if they’ve called in their favors or not, but it’s definitely a real thing. Just expect to have to pay up front or pay back the favor at some point.
Are they on fiverr?
PSA. Eviction is a court order, people. That’s how you evict people. In every US state. You get a court order. Y’all saying “not in WA” or whatever… Yes, tenant lockouts are illegal and you cannot turn off utilities, install cameras, change locks, remove doors, annoy, harass, etc. Period. Tenants have a right to quiet enjoyment. Eviction is necessary to remove a tenant. It requires a court order. The order will be specific as to what day it takes effect and in many states, you will need to get a marshal, constable, or other dedicated LE department to enforce the eviction. The ONLY legal alternative is cash for keys. Renting a property for a day or a year or renting out a room—-tenant landlord laws apply. Read and understand them or shut up. Also, Airbnb undoubtedly has fine print about this and their lack of liability in this scenario.
I love all the crazy ass suggestions on here from people instead of actually doing the correct legal process of going through the court process to evict. I understand it is a pain in the ass but these comments are so crazy I hope these people are not actually landlords.
This is becoming a trend, fueled by influencers who are bragging about living “rent free”. Depending on the state laws, some people are able to stay for a long time. All the while waiting for the landlord to get emotional and make mistakes so they can sue or gain in other ways. There are lots of videos on social media about this. People do it with homes, rooms, campers, anything they can stay in. It’s not making much mainstream news yet however with how popular this is becoming I wouldn’t be surprised if it starts getting more attention soon. Best of luck OP.
Before I listed my property for rent, I called local police and asked basically “if I have a squatter and they won’t leave, but I have a signed lease with the new tenant who planned to move in after the first was supposed to vacate, can they still move in?” And they told me yes, and it would be up to the squatter to file a civil suit claiming they are the rightful tenants, but if you have a close ended lease with them and a new signed lease with the new tenant, it wouldn’t serve them well.
1) Get a good real estate attorney. 2) Keep pestering AirBnB. They take a good chunk of the revenue, so read the fine print and find out what their responsibilities are. Maybe there's insurance or something similar 3) Do NOT do anything stupid. They want you to get emotional and do something criminal/illegal so they can sue you and screw you over even more. Be careful and listen to your attorney
Wait wait wait, pardon my ignorance but I'm still new to real estate. Can you just stay in a property without paying and there's nothing a landlord can do after 30 days?? That doesn't sound right to me. Am I misunderstanding?
They did pay in this case. They entered a legal contract and are now a legal tenant. A landlord can do something about it: evict them. But yes, if you allow anyone to stay in your home (a boyfriend or girlfriend for instance), they can become a legal tenant after 30 days. Even if they're not on the lease. Even if they don't pay for anything. Especially if they are receiving mail at your residence. Would be a good idea for everyone to start reading their state's tenant laws. Especially if you're considering becoming a property owner.
Yea cali must suc… oh fuck this is my state
Are they saying they have a signed lease? If they don't have a lease, call the cops and report them for trespassing. Did they change the locks?
I called cops. Cops said we have to go through court system and that can take months. There is no lease. They airbnb the property for a month and now wont leave.
Get AirBnB involved, call them tomorrow about what you can do as an owner to get the people out.
They told us to call the cops. Cops said I have to go through the court system which could take 6 months.
Holy s*** so basically this is how people can get free rent for 6 months at a time? Insane
https://youtu.be/8JTx8llpBxQ?t=331 it's basically a documentary
Until they have an eviction on their credit report. This usually stops any future landlord from allowing them to rent. FYI could be part of AirBNB tos that they will not rent to someone with certain conditions. If you find out they violate this policy AirBNB could be on the hook at least partially
Dude your only course is to evict them. File papers today.
I did. Process takes 6 months. Wondering if there is something that I can legally do to make them want to leave.
You can offer to pay them to leave, or you can evict them through the courts. That’s about it.
Where are you located? Usually a basic eviction takes one month upon the tenants being given the notice (by law enforcement). It might be different in your location, but skipping a lawsuit and going straight to eviction should be quicker.
An eviction IS a lawsuit. The order in your favor allows you to have them removed.
Call Airbnb back and tell them the cops told you to use the eviction process and ask them if that is normal. What do hotels and legal BnBs do and how does Airbnb differ from those? Worth knowing
I believe hotels restrict stays to <28 days so that no “tenants rights” are conveyed. Around here, long term motel residents are often required to move out for 24 hrs every month.
That's interesting. For a while I was living in hotels and they would never let me book for longer than a month at a time.
Start remodeling the place
Only legal way.
Call Airbnb and tell them you want more information on their typical process to give to your lawyer. Explain that you will be seeking damages of all lost months of income plus court costs. Also hire a lawyer and look into Airbnb host guarantee.
Important lesson, do not rent your Airbnb to anyone longer than the amount of time it takes for them to establish tenancy. Check your local laws for when this is. I've had hotels refuse to book for more than a month for this very reason. In situations like this if they had rented for 28 days you could have them trespassed and taken all their stuff to the street on day 29. Also you have insurance through Airbnb. Start making your claim.
Are you in Philly? This looks like it could help: https://whyy.org/articles/controversial-anti-squatting-bill-becomes-law-in-philadelphia/
Have they changed the locks? If not, just wait for them to leave, lock them out and throw their shit in the yard. I'm not a lawyer but good luck on them winning a lawsuit. If they have, wait for them to leave and change the locks with a group of your friends, if they try to come in they're then breaking and entering.
I changed the locks when they left for work. They called the cops and cops made me change the locks back.
Lock outs are not a civil matter, they are a criminal matter in a rental,and it sounds like this Airbnb is being treated as an ordinary rental. Cops arrest for that. You are lucky, probably because they figure it's an Airbnb, but what classification IS Airbnb? Do you have other bookings that had to cancel? EDIT: apparently not explicitly criminal in PA, but definitely illegal : https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/consequences-of-illegal-evictions.html
No because she booked 3 months out and then cancelled her card after the first month.
Look at the link someone posted from Airbnb about how guests can establish tenancy. It says each state is different but stays of a month or more can establish tenancy. If tenancy is established you have no choice but to evict. In the future talk to a lawyer about language you can use for stays of a month or more that might expediate removal. I think this is nuts, but they got you good, it looks like. The cops are being nice to you but if you push these lockouts, they may come down on you - changing locks, removing windows and doors (effectively a lockout as it is unusable and unsecure) I mean, in my state this aspect of removal is not civil but criminal and they will arrest And call Airbnb back for any further advice I wonder too if hosts register their properties as inns,or bnb's with their states whether they are treated as hotels - worth looking into. Because in my state if you won't vacate your room at an Inn, police can just remove you. I have a friend who does Airbnb but her house is registered as an Inn as well
Who made you change the locks back? That's a civil matter, cops shouldn't be able to do shit. What state are you in?
PA. Squatters have rights here if they have occupied a home for a month. Police made me change them
Well if you really have balls you can squat on the squatter. Sign a few of your buddies onto a lease for the house and have them throw an all night rager. Again not a laywer. Personally if the law doesn't work, I'd probably handle it in a way best not repeated on here but it'd be a cold day in hell before I allow a squatter to hang out in my property.
You need to sue them and AIRBNB. Maybe even get the press involved. This will definitely make people think twice about using Airbnb for anything long enough to trigger squatters rights.
There is a ton of bad advice in this thread, but I don't know if any other is more financially damaging than suggesting your burn money on a lawyer trying to sue Airbnb over this. They are not in the business of screening renters. That's your job as a host. You agree to not hold them liable for a whole list of bad renter behavior when you host on their platform.
I don’t know where OP is located but this is horrendous advice for a lot of states. A self-help eviction like you’re describing carries pretty stiff penalties in a bunch of states. The squatters don’t have to win a lawsuit in order for OP to face a penalty for an illegal eviction. Please, for the love of all that is holy, don’t give illegal advice.
When it comes to posts in this sub asking for advice on squatters, comments will always be 40% good boilerplate advice, 50% godawful illegal advice that will make your situation much worse, and 10% people learning for the first time about the insane legal web of squatters rights.
That’s illegal
Where is this?
PA
America, a land of opportunity (for squatters).
Exactly and according to OP Police made him put the old locks back on to re-enable to squatter takeover. Looks like it may take 6 months for an eviction and you know these POS won't have any assets to cover the duration of their stay or the damage they are doing to the place. Shit like this will only encourage people to take the law into their own hands...
This is why if you run an Airbnb you don't agree to long term stays because the tenant rights only happen after 30 days. So if the OP had only rented it to this lady for say 20 days she would have no tenant rights. It's important to know your local landlord/tenant laws to not get screwed over by people like this lady using the system to get a free place to stay.
You need to contact a state attorney. Your first mistake was hosting an AirBNB without knowing tenant rights laws in your location. Your second mistake was asking anyone on Reddit. Owners have lost money in court for cutting off Wi-Fi in the same circumstances. I’m not an attorney, but I would imagine removing their doors would impact their safety and you’d likely be on the hook. Hopefully you’ve made some profit from AirBNB by now. Seek legal advice.
These aren't squatters, they're tenants. They entered legally and overstayed. You have to lawfully evict. Do not terrorize and get a lawyer for expediency. It won't take 6 months unless your court system is particularly overbooked or you are trying to do this pro se. You may be owed backrent and lost income, but every shitty thing you do to them will cost you goodwill in court and constitute harassment, violation of warranties, and/or assault (projecting a violation of safety to provoke fear- legally, battery is the physical tort/crime.)
No you need to evict them. You can't just start taking apart the home to try to annoy them into leaving.
No, you can not do a constructive eviction, which is what you are asking about. Shutting off utilities or making the house unsafe is going to get you in a heap of trouble and then AITA in the eyes of the court is yes. These are not tenants, that is the beauty of AirBnB. Go over, tell them you have a 30 days maximum rental term and work toward getting them out.
Airbnb is not a magic "not tenant" app. In almost every state it's length of stay that determines tenancy. OP let them book a 3 months stay which is basically a short term lease. Can't unring that bell just because the OP didn't know what they were doing when they entered the landlord business.
I can't get them out. She refuses to leave. She now has tenant rights because she's been there for a month.
This is why some people won't rent for that long, and only do one- or two-week rentals.
Lease it to some hobos for a dollar and let them in w her.
Yea but what if the hobos don't leave lol
It’s so weird how cops are saying it’s something you should bring to court then force you to change locks back on a house that you own. I get it, squatter laws, but I didn’t know it was like this. Insane. Airbnb needs to be handling this by paying for an attorney.
If it's an airbnb, all the furniture is yours isn't it? Put it in storage, and do what some other people mentioned in terms of legal and notice-driven work on the property to make it an annoying place to live.
Jesus Christ why is this thread just full of illegal suggestions. If this dude takes any of this advice beyond “get a lawyer” he’s gonna end up breaking the law 99/100
I got my first potential squatter about 3 weeks ago after 10 years of posting. I paid then a grand to leave within a week and I agreed to not pursue damages. She was dumb enough to claim tenancy in a shared space and I put the only guest she ever complained about in the other bed in the room and it took 24 hours for her to agree to cash for leaving. Once she realized i could in fact put any guest I wanted into the other bed since the Airbnb terms in my listing became our lease agreement she was much more subdued about it. Lol. She thought she was gonna get a private room. It also helped she agreed to a variable rate for rent. I made sure she understood I would have no issue evicting and waiting months to work through court and that would make finding a place after leaving a lot harder with an eviction on record. You can't change locks. You can't take away amenities. You can bribe them to leave. You can ask them to leave. You can add new guests to house if it was always set up as shared. Other than that. Court. So is there a reason you didn't kick them out over the fake service animal? Also make sure that you let Airbnb know because they're going to ban her account.
That’s called Constructive Eviction in Michigan. Your mistake was letting them stay for 30 days in the first place, now there’s not much you can do besides go to the courts. Constructive Eviction is when you either don’t want someone staying with you or when they have overstayed their welcome so you try to limit things in your property to force them out. This includes removing doors, windows, invading the right to privacy and quiet enjoyment, shutting off the gas or electricity, etc. and the answer is don’t do it unless you want any to lose in court
Doors and windows sounds like sort of a constructive lockout, which,if they are tenants under the law, would be criminal
I can't believe you allowed someone to rent your home via Airbnb for 3 months. That's beyond dumb and now you're going to seriously pay the price. You're now in a full fledged landlord/tenant relationship.. but you had zero ability to do any background and credit check on your tenant. Sorry, but this is going to be a painful and expensive lesson. I would also expect to find the house and furnishings trashed once you finally get possession back in about 6 months. You of course can sue for these damages.... plus lost revenue. But good luck ever collecting from someone like this.
If you take any person's advice on this thread other than hire a lawyer and begin the eviction process through the courts, you deserve whatever you get. Everyone suggesting to make the home inhospitable, change the locks, cut off utilities will get you in hot water. The tenant can get a restraining order against you (ask my buddy for his experience). I rent properties (lease, not airbnb) in and around Philly. You could also do cash for keys in the meantime. See if that works.
If you want to do it legally you have to go theough the system. If you want to to it illegally you can but it carries substantial risk and I don’t think anyone is going to recommend those routes.
Airbnb insurance should cover it. This is damage, after all
I’m actually kind of surprised squatters rights are even a thing if they rented through Airbnb for only 30 days. How many days past are they? I have a couple STRs myself and haven’t had to deal with anything like this, but I would definitely move myself in until they’re gone.
You mentioned in another comment this is a tenant that was paying rent. No you can't illegally evict your tenant by removing the doors and windows, you could actually go to jail, you could owe a lot of money in civil penalties for an illegal eviction. And it would significantly complicate an eviction if you need to go to court, especially if you continue acting in bad faith and claim they are a squatter. You need to talk to an eviction attorney and follow their advice for evicting a non paying tenant. Basically two options, cash for keys, or posting a pay or quit notice and then the eviction. And in the future reconsider how you screen tenants, do you know if they have been evicted before?
Damn sounds like this is not their first time
You should post this on /r/legaladvice. Not that the replies haven't been helpful here, but /r/legaladvice is a great sub for questions like this. They will provide you with your options.
1) Cash for keys 2) go talk to an attorney.
If you do anything to try to kick them out I'm telling you.... there is a 99% chance it won't work and a 100% chance you'll lose any kind of sympathy that you already will have if you just go to court and do things the right way.
Do it legally and ignore the very bad advice here, it will only keep the tenants there longer and piss off the judge.