Extend stay inquired by guest but no payment yet

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I am having guests extending stay in 2 properties due to COVID lockdown. Good one is paying month by month. But another one says he will, but he didn’t pay for more than half month. I understand he has no cash but he has no response to pay by credit card using AirBNB link too.

What should I do? As it is beyond AIRBNB booking, I think I will ask Juristic Office to pause tap water until he pays rental fee.

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That is exactly why I don’t rent outside Airbnb. I like the fact that Airbnb charges them immediatedly on their credit card. I would be concern of guest paying by check and then checking bouncing. If it’s an out of state check, it may take up to five days to clear and by then the guest is long gone. Did the guest sign a lease? Do you have anything in writing in regards to length of stay and payment? You might end up with a swatter. Call a lawyer to find out how you should proceed.

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Turn off water and electricity. Or call your local police and tell them he has not paid and you want your money and want him gone.

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They don’t sign a lease as I didn’t propose. It’s only text in chat application that they didn’t yet pay.

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Thank you Ken. I will wait until tomorrow if they don’t pay, I will cut off water.

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If your guest is no longer on AirBNB and has been there longer than 30 days, you might be up for a lawsuit. In addition, with the current quarantine situation, many cities have put forth temporary regulations during this Pandemic to prohibit evictions for nonpayment.

Without knowing where you are, I’d recommend that you look into what your LEGAL options are. In the event that you do something illegal, and are taken to court, you could be subject to significant fines and closure of your listing.

https://www.lawyers.com/legal-info/real-estate/landlord-tenant-law/can-my-landlord-shut-off-my-utilities.html

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Thank you very much. My property is in Bangkok, Thailand. I will check with the Juristic office whether it is the law about this in Bangkok.

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That is illegal in most places.

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But I can take a 2-months deposit when I rent outside Airbnb. That gives me 2-months to get them out if they aren’t going to pay…or if they cause damage or if they don’t clean well when they leave.

And you’re less likely to get a squatter outside of Airbnb because you will have their real name and ID and be able to call references, run background and credit checks. You have to vet your guests either way but it’s much more reliable if you do it as opposed to Airbnb doing it. Because you can’t do much at all about “Bob” from “USA” not leaving and that is all of the information that Airbnb will let you have about your guest, who is actually named Ryan or something.

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This is a good video that might help you about tenant rights vs transient guests: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yg8eEGhh1Y&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR1TUevBdgmybyp3JjfX0Jw1oAMkdGZ-2w8ZqCbcj5k_lYS77-zGOOI4les

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@Lynick4442
Thanks very much for sharing this.

  1. I’m still unclear by what means he removed the guest, if he did so? I ask because the implication is that the guest / tenant stayed longer than 30 days, which is also the main issue that might be problematic for OP.
  2. He mentioned that he “removed furniture”; From that, I’m assuming that removal of furniture is a legal remedy, unlike turning off utilities? True?

Some intereting legal concepts:

  • Why airBNB hosts should be regulated like innkeepers rather than landlords.
  • Theft by Deception (misrepresentation / falsehood in obtaining occupancy)

I noticed that didn’t give any indication of what AirBNB did or didn’t do to help reconcile the situation.

Seems to tie into this other forum Topic.
https://airhostsforum.com/t/should-there-be-a-dedicated-airbnb-style-platform-for-long-term-medium-term-rentals-keep-the-easybooking-but-add-more-security-credit-checks-id-digitally-signed-tenancy-agreements-option-to-video-meet-potential-tenants-etc/41786

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In that case, just throw in a tear gas grenade.

Just kidding, but in all seriousness, the advice carries as much weight as anything else from people that didn’t know you were in Bangkok.

I often wonder if the forum should require members to at least provide the location of their listing(s) in order to avoid wasting other member’s time.

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Yes, location would be a good addition, IMO.
I have a friend here in Mexico who had a squatter situation. He went to the mayor and asked whether he could just throw the guy’s stuff out on the street and change the locks. The mayor said no, but that the homeowner could change the locks when the squatter was out, then call him to let him know he’d done it and arrange a time for the squatter to get their stuff out, having first notified the local police to be in attendance at that time to oversee. Which is exactly how it was handled. Someone might be given different advice in another Mexican town. It’s one of those countries where regulations can often be interpreted as “suggestions”. As my daughter says - “Mexico, where nothing is allowed, yet everything is allowed”.

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Not sure I would put too much weight on what this guy says, in my humble opinion of course.

JF

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Thank you so much for sharing this vdo. I will check the local Thai law.

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I’m not a lawyer and I don’t think everything applies. I just saw it this morning as I was writing out an agreement with a guest who is staying past their Airbnb stay. What I picked up on was making sure I included their permanent addresses, called myself an Innkeeper, and defined them as transient guests.

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I agree but I did take out of it a few good tidbits of info to include in an agreement I wrote today.