How many of you are tenants?

According to:
https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/06r17#BK144

“Subletting rental unit
97. (1) A tenant may sublet a rental unit to another person with the consent of the landlord. 2006, c. 17, s. 97 (1).”

Did your landlord give you written consent to use AirBnB?

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I would still go further and determine exactly what subletting in this case means. I have a suspicion that Airbnb hotel like activity can not be considered subletting.
I also just read that at any time even if landlord allowed Airbnb, they can reverse the decision and forbid doing it. I hope that landlord did that.

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In the beginning of the thread the OP says doing Airbnb does not constitute “subletting” as subletting would require her to move out.

So it sounds like she is only saying that under her province tenants can rent out rooms to cover rent, and it is none of the landlord’s business basically. She mentions that he keeps asking her about insurance, but says he should be asking his own insurance company those questions…[quote=“Saraswati_Maha, post:11, topic:7653”]

it’s just that now whenever i ask instead of not responding or delaying, he just responds with questions about airbnb guests and insurance and other things that he really should be asking his insurance company and that are actually none of his business (tenants in Ontario don’t have a legal obligation to have permission for guests unless they are moving out and transfering the lease).
[/quote]

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Yay, Yana!!! Tell it like it is!!!

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Judges in the US seem to be ruling that STRs are NOT a commercial business: (1) A Case in Colorado, Houston V. Wilson Mesa Ranch HOA, where a court affirmed that short term rentals are not a commercial use of property but a residential use.

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What are her costs? The rent she pays for her apartment is not actually a “business” cost because she is paying rent for a place for HER to live. For Airbnb, she’ll have the cost of linen, some toiletries, and whatever else she provides for the guest (maybe an uptick in her utilities). But the rent is not a cost of doing business for her. She is living there.

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I just wrote the same thing before I got this far down on the thread :slight_smile:

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Poor landlord. I think he will think twice now about letting tenants do short term rental.

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I state upfront on my listing that I am an owner so that a potential guest know it is likely to be a more stable reservation.

The more i read this post the more i am convinced that a landlord NEVER gave OP permission to do it. Yes, she is correct, law allows tenants to do Airbnb if profit does not exceeds rent BUT, there is a huge BUT which is she can do it ONLY IF landlord agrees to it
. I figured it all out:
OP one day decided to do Airbnb. She started having inquires from landlord about her new business as landlord probably did not find out right away, but eventually. THATS WHY she consulted attorney periodically during these 2 years about her “rights”.
Then of course things started to break. Landlord probably just decided to close his eyes on her Airbnb venture, because she paid her rent in time, but when she started demanding from him little things to do like the stupid shower rod, he got pissed and told her to bug off.
He thought, how dare she!!! Not only she made money on my property and have non stop in and out of all kinds of people in MY apartment that break things, but she has guts to ask me to repair after them. I closed my eyes on all of this but if i am going to go into expense and repair after HER guests …thats not going to happen.
Hope by this time he already started eviction process of this tenant along with her enterprise

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Agree… What I sort of resent about this post is that the OP appears not to have been honest with us to begin with. Cites all kinds of laws supposedly protecting her right to do this. She can say STR is allowed in Ontario, that is true. Conveniently leaves out the fact that she needs landlord’s consent. Has probably told him, these are roommates or visiting guests and to butt out of her business. Once he finds out they are Airbnb, he is rightfully pissed. He wants to know whether she has insurance to cover them because he knows his OWN insruance won’t cover them. She then vilifies her landlord as though he is the bad guy here. Cries the blues about how he is now harassing her because he won’t hop to her demands and fix a shower curtain rod, which probably came loose because hundreds of paying guests (mean roommates) were in and out using the shower.

What’s also disturbing is how some forum members have jumped to her defense because I called BS on her situation and was told to butt out. I am told by this person who joined yesterday I need to kindly leave and stop answering her. As if! Seriously. I was never rude until she was.

So she asked us a question originally, while trying to hide behind supposed " legal protections." And here’s the answer.

Get your landlord’s permission to run your mini hotel out of his property. Or stop doing it. Period. End of paragraph.

PS. She never did come back and actually answer whether she had her landlord’s permission to do Air.

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@konacoconutz You are the Bomb. I was definitely confused by her bravado. I wasn’t sure, but you saw through her bullshit immediately.

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I have thought about this all night long and read everyone’s posts. I am calling total BS on this. Something is stinky. If you have already sought legal advice “several times in the past years”, then why are you on this message board asking about your landlord giving a hard time?
Why arent you going back to your steller attorney, paying the attorney again, and getting more legal advice about how to handle your landlord? Why ask all of us dummies?
You seem to know everything about your local legislation…why not just show it to your landlord if it is all on the up and up? You have researched everything to death and you read it just how you want to read it. Why not research how to deal with landlords next?
I keep finding more questions swirling in my brain.
Who do you think an injured paying rental party would chase…you or the landlord? Do you really expect the landlord to supplement your income by increasing the property liability coverage?
Why dont you post your actual lease here and let us all take a look at it, so we can see the clauses where the landlord has agreed to allow you to exchange his property for your money, and show that the landlord is fully insured for circumstances in his property. I am really interested in getting the whole story here.

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I’m sure the OP has flown the coop.

The collective “we” fixed her wagon ~ she’ll think twice before she comes sniffing 'round here again.

(I talk big, huh?)

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I truly was not trying to fix her wagon. I thought about this for a day and overnight before responding and I looked up the local legislation. This is a case for the local planning and zoning, the legislation, and the attorney if there is one. This is not an issue for a message board to justify what is going on. And without being privy to the rental contract, there are no answers for the OP. I also dont think the OP is being totally upfront. If OP comes back with more info and the rental agreement, then there may be answers. Otherwise, no.

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I’ve been a member of this forum for almost a year but only really active for the past month because I am in between flipper houses. Having read a lot of posts, I have learned so much that has been extremely helpful to me. What I find with the forum members/posters who are renters running their Airbnb without their landlord’s permission is that they do not have much in common with the other 97% of us who own our properties. The ones without permission seem to be looking for justification as to why they should be allowed to make money off of their rented place while leaving their landlord liable due to insurance reasons (and in this OP’s case, minor maintenance) and refuse to accept that they are putting their landlord in jeopardy. Some seem to be trying to find out ways to get around the fact that they are doing something against their lease and the local statutes (for instance, here in Boulder, no renter is allowed to do STR, even with a landlord’s consent) and are asking this forum to help them circumvent their lease and their local laws. And, there are the renters that do fit in with this forum because it is both legal according to their local jurisdiction AND they have their landlord’s consent. I think the ones doing it illegally need to start their own forum because they will get nothing but hand-slapping, here.

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Well said, @sandy2. This forum platform is one of the most sophisticated I have ever seen, yet we lack a FAQ. It would be nice. And at the top: IF YOU HOST AS A LEASEHOLDER, YOU WILL NOT FIND A SYMPATHETIC EAR HERE.

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Thank you, CatskillsGrrl. However, this forum does have an FAQ, but nothing is said to the illegal renters: http://www.airhostsforum.com/faq

That is certainly the wrong use of the word FAQ. There is not single question, frequent or otherwise.

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Just a fun fact you are allowed to get a STR permit in SF as a renter with your Landlords premission. We know a few people that have done this. I have zero clue how the lease is structured, etc. I just wanted to point out it is possible, albeit difficult.

Agree OP was not doing it legally.