Clearly you don’t live where I live. It’s happened to people I know.
I never heard about people living free of charge when the landlord is living in the same property. The guest (in this case lodger) doesn’t have so much right and there is not signed agreement between the lodger and the host. I guess it would be very risky living with the host when you don’t pay the rent and you have all your personal belongings in the host’s property. The people you know that couldn’t evict the lodger were renting just one room or more the one?
They were renting a bedroom with use of the common areas of the house (kitchen, bathroom, living room, front and back yards). In Los Angeles, CA you don’t need to have a lease agreement to be a tenant.
Why would this be risky?
If the guest is not welcomed, the situation could makes the host very resentful and vindictive, the host could use the guest’s toothbrush to clean the toilet or spit in his food…Also it depends how big is the host, if he is a well built male host, also if the host will not use any physical violence, the guest would live in fear all the time. It is not a nice feeling having a very angry strong man around all the time.
There was a thread here. The original poster had an Airbnb guest who turned into a squatter. The squatter called the police about anything the host did to her. I believe that the post was removed to protect the original poster.
This is why reviews are so important.
We took it to a private thread to protect her. This was an absolute nightmare of a guest. One of the worst stories I’ve ever heard. She tormented the host, she knew how the court system worked. Attempted to file TROs on the host, which, had they been granted, would have barred the host from her own home, while the squatter guest took over everything. Because she had a young daughter she used her to gain more sympathy and protections from the courts.
Air was helpless to do much but after months of wrangling, finally got the squatter to agree to move to a hotel. The room she had stayed in was completely destroyed. Nightmare.
There must have been some red flags, huh? Were there reviews on this woman?
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Can’t remember…
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The guest established her tenant rights by not leaving at checkout and overstaying more than 30 days. This then required an eviction, which the guest knew how to game.
The guest filed multiple TROs on the host, and was entitled to have hearings on each one.
Yana, since last April I no longer am a Host, and in retrospect I wonder how did I last that long. I reed from time to time this Blog, after all I have been a Host for about three years.
I myself would not want to go back to being a Host again. I prefer to be able to screen people that will stay in my home and be able to remove them without worrying about the consequences of a third party like airbnb.
In my case who made the money was the city, airbnb, and the guest of whom some were grateful for getting a great deal, and other guest that were scammers and those that had champagne taste on a beer budget.
I did do meet some great people for which I am grateful. As for the business end, I was working in the minus category.
I am happy to see that you and many on this blog are making a living out of being a Host.
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This is a great point. Properties are all so different from one another.
This fall I had two days that I wanted to block off. Because we sometimes read of days magically getting unblocked I raised by price to $100 a night. Later I unblocked them when my plans changed. Now my price tips said $70 a night. Normally I get between $32-42 a night and price tips tells me to go down to $26-29. It was strange.
In any case I never go as low as price tips tells me. More often than not I raise my price last minute if I’m not booked yet because I know there aren’t many listings left. So sure people looking now for January are booking a place $11 cheaper but the person who books the day before arrival won’t have that option.
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I am not able to find anything about landlords that have to move out from their own home because the lodger didn’t pay the rent and accuse them to misbehave. For the law renting a whole place to tenants it is different than renting a room to somebody in your own home. When I host somebody in my place I don’t call him a roommate but a lodger. If you rent the whole place you need to sign a contract with your tenants but you don’t have to do the same with the lodger. The landlord also can decide which part of the house the lodger can access, in my case the lodger have access to his bedroom and kitchen but not to the rest of the house. I really don’t understand how a court would be able to evict the landlord from his own property and leave the lodger in the house and honestly I don’t think this would never happen. Also because the landlord will be stop paying water and electricity bills and the house will be disconnected from those services. Who is gong to pay those bills? the lodger? The landlord in order to avoid to pay taxes and fees can declare the house unoccupied. The lodger doesn’t have any contract signed and can’t prove that is living in the house and of course he doesn’t have any right over the house. If you know some situation about a landlord that has been evicted from his own home, I would be very courios to read the story in details
It is illegal in California and I’m sure many other states to disconnect utilities when you have a tenant. You may call your tenants lodgers, but in the eyes of the law it doesn’t matter what they are called. In California a lease agreement is not necessary for a landlord/tenant relationship. Tenancy is established by the tenant living in the lodging for over 30 days. This even applies to non-paying guests.
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Maybe landlords haven’t moved from their own home but there are many many stories of people not paying their rent and being a nightmare to get out. There are numerous stories about this happening to Airbnb hosts as well. The point that was being made is that in the US tenants get rights after 30 days
Note that in all three of the articles you’ve linked, the property was in California.
from what I read in this website in california is not so different then our European situation:
Then again I would like to know a real story where the landlord was evicted
Single lodger in a private residence
A lodger is a person who lives in a room in a house where the owner lives. The owner can enter all areas occupied by the lodger and has overall control of the house.9 Most lodgers have the same rights as tenants.10
However, in the case of a single lodger in a house where there are no other lodgers, the owner can evict the lodger without using formal eviction proceedings. The owner can give the lodger written notice that the lodger cannot continue to use the room. The amount of notice must be the same as the number of days between rent payments (for example, 30 days). (See “Tenant’s notice to end a periodic tenancy**”.) When the owner has given the lodger proper notice and the time has expired, the lodger has no further right to remain in the owner’s house and may be removed as a trespasser.11**
You just want to argue. If not about health care or taxes, I guess it has to be this. I don’t care and I’m not going to do your research for you. And whatever laws exist here may not exist where you are.
If you think there is no danger at all of a long term lodger becoming a squatter and the owner of the property living with the lodger in prolonged, near powerless misery, you are wrong. The chances are small but the real nightmare scenarios have happened and they don’t all make the news.
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It can and does happen. They can claim tenancy rights after thirty days and are thereafter entitled to all due process rights of any tenant. You can’t just drag them out forcibly or turn their power off. If you begin an unlawful detainer action against a tenant, it must be done in an exact and precise manner or you’ll have to start over. If this ever happens to any of you, I recommend calling an attorney to handle it. I also recommend NOT using these platforms to rent for periods over 30 days.
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The lodger rule also says that The owner can enter all areas occupied by the lodger. It is an unusual circumstance to have a lodger who doesn’t have any private space.