I rented an house and I did a regular contract with my landlord. The apartament has in total 3 rooms, plus on on the rooftop and we share a kitchen. I have the contract for one year. My landlord keeps on using one or two rooms for AirBNB acomodation and short term rentals. Sometimes one month thrught AirBNB, sometimes even 3 days. For example he told me that in august there will be 3 different guest, one for two weeks and the other two just for some days.
This is pretty annoyng for me because I never know which people are in the house, I even donât know if he gets any documents from them and he doesenât announce to me in advance who will come. I donât feel safe in this way since I always live here and I did my contract for one year. So in the morning sometimes I find random people in the kitchen as soon as I go out from my room.
He also comes in the house (kitchen, common spaces) without any announcement to accompany those people inside.
thanks for your understandig and the link. I saw it too and I think itâs good.
If a person wants to run airbnb I thin should do it in a proper place not in a shared house where one or two people have a long term contract and they are maybe registered, even with a private contract.
I would accept even 6 months contract for the others, as long as there is an actual contract and not a random airbnb reservation. Where documents are kept and I know who there is in the house.
I think the main concern is about safety because what if I put something a bit valuable (my rice cooker, my laptop, etc) in a common space and than it gets stolen by a person that checks out after one day? Itâs really about security in my situationâŚ
What can I do?
Regards,
Have you tried talking to your landlord about concern for your safety? I know landlords have a bad rep for caring only about money and not caring about their tenants, but thereâs some landlords that have a soul.
If he/she is willing to listen, it wouldnât hurt to bring up your concerns, but do choose your wording wisely. You probably donât want to pinch a nerve and theyâll make your stay more miserable than it is now.
yes I did and he said that he will try to find someone long term. This is just a promise anyway because in the end he does not do it and he keeps on renting rooms of the house on AirBNB. Everytime it apologizes but for me the situation doesenât change it.
Regards,
I would like to suggest you continue to engage your landlord and propose other ways your concerns can be addressed.
It has long been noted in these forums that rentals in Taiwan are relatively low while valuations for the apartments are actually quite high. As someone who owns an apartment in Taipei, I find this very frustrating (although my mortgage on the place is now quite manageable, at last). Recently, I have moved to another city temporarily so I would really want to rent out my Taipei apartment for as much as possible. I am looking at AirBNB as a way to squeeze out a little bit more than what a regular monthly rental would give me.
In my case, realtors have casually said I could reasonably expect 50k in rent. When I have checked Airbnb in my area, apartments are going for 4 to 6k a night. I donât expect to fully occupy the place, but Iâm doing better if I can rent the place for more than 1/3 of the month.
So, if I were your landlord, I would be willing to make adjustments to appease my âanchorâ tenant - who represents steady but below market income.
I would not permit random strangers to live there unless it was agreed upon beforehand. That is very sketchy and unethical behavior by your landlord. Itâs also very possibly illegal.
The govnernments has been cracking down on airbnbs recently, you can report it if you want.
I have seen the emendament of the article 55 of the new tourism act from the tourism Bureau department. Are you sure you can rent airbnb to a normal apartment without a license? I will follow your advice ans speak but would you really barter your safety by not knowing who is in the house as a regular teanant for a few thousands discount (maybe) on the monthly rent?
Regards,
Tell him no more. Foot down. Get a regular tenant or nobody. He can then figure out what he wants to do at end of tenancy.
He taking you for a ride, you need to show you are adamant on this. Ask buddies or relations to be there when you have this conversation (better) or send a registered letter to him.
This is the situationâŚif he doesnât take you seriously you can mentiin that the government does not permit illegal Airbnb rental and heâs certainly not paying tax either(i wouldnât mention the tax he will know that in his mind anyway).
Just to be clear, I didnât mean to say that as the âanchor tenantâ the OP was necessarily the âLittle Landlordâ, which I think is an unofficial role anyway. Also, we do not know if the OP is in a strong enough negotiating position to put their foot down - 1-year contract not-withstanding, the tenant and landlord could agree to part ways and the landlord could seek a more cooperative anchor, assuming one would even be necessary at that point.
On the other hand, given the current anti-Airbnb climate building these days, the OPâs position could be strengthening, i.e., the landlord will not want a troublesome tenant.
OP - if you can demonstrate that you are interested in coming up with mutually beneficial solutions, you can hopefully extract more in the process.
Also, if I were to let out my place or parts of it to Airbnb guests, I would vette them as much as some hosts have checked on me. Sure, Airbnb offers the âinstant approvalâ option in some places, and I have stayed in such places, but I would try to learn from some of the Airbnb hosts I have stayed with.
Mutually beneficial solutions doesnât include letting random strangers live in your apartment day after day after signing a lease! He wasnât told it was a boardinghouse.
Screw that.
Landlord should find some longer term tenants and stop being a greedy arse.
how do you see to ask him to announce in advance by writing (even mail is fine) when he is going to come inside the house. Asking for a copy of the reservation of the guests and for their documents so I can anyway collect everything and all the information. This for my own safety. If he doesnât comply than I mention that i know he doesnât have a licence to operate the airbnb business and i might report it.
Regards,
Reality check: any mention that renting the airBnB out is illegal requires the OP to be ready to move out. Because thatâs what will happen if Landlord gets threatened. He knows Foreigner has virtually no pull in this situation, and there are plenty of tenants out there. He might even make more money renting Foreignerâs room out through airBnB or some other short-term rental source than with Foreigner in there long-term.
Usually the easiest way to handle this kind of thing is simply to look for another place, and then use the airBnB thing as leverage to get out of any penalty clauses in the rental contract when you do moveâŚand of course Foreigner is not moving because of the airBnB situation, itâs because of a regrettable and horrific personal situation with an elderly family member back in Home Country.
I like your post because it goes back to reality. I wrote this because I like to gather different opinions about a situation and see different attitudes of different people. Only one question can you please clarify what you mean with âitâs because of a regrettable and horrific personal situation with an elderly family member back in Home Countryâ.
Im not English native speaker, what did you want to say?
Regards,
to clarify i dont want to move if it was that the idea. I really want to stayâŚit is just that the airbnb situation is a bit annoying because itâs reality that I dont really know who there is inside the house. Thatâs itâŚ
What I meant was that you donât go to the landlord and say, âI am going to move out because you wonât do anything about this whole AirBnB thing.â Thatâs confrontational and makes him lose face (it has nothing to do with whether or not itâs legal or even right in the first place; heâs the landlord and heâs Taiwanese.)
Instead, if youâve decided that he isnât going to change the situation, and you really canât stand it (and I can totally understand that â Iâd probably move out under those circumstances), you go to him and say, âGosh, you know, Iâm in a little bit of a hard position right now. My [insert relative here: mother/father/grandfather/grandmother/sister/brother] is [deathly ill/incapacitated/has been attacked/was in a serious car accident/mountaineering incident/whatever] and so I have to return to my Home Country immediately.â Under those circumstances you are more likely to get money back on deposits or penalties that would be due for breaking the lease.
Note that not much of this has anything at all to do with whatâs legal. It has to do with whatâs customary, and what people will do without feeling that they have been disrespected or âlost faceâ. Even so this is a general opinion based on personal experience and you can never anticipate the reactions of any one individual based on that. Usually it isnât a bad starting point, though.
I canât really see any solution for you to stay there. Thereâs no incentive or reason for Landlord to change what heâs doing. Money speaks louder than reason or ârightâ or law.
You donât own the apartment, and the landlord does;
You are but one tenant out of an endless pool in Taipei ready to move into that apartment;
At the end of the day, you have no rights in Taiwan. Only what is granted to you by whomever has the upper hand at the moment. Employer, sometimes ROC-national spouse, landlord, government agencyâŚ
I know the law says this and that, but this is pretty much how it actually works. The best outcome you could get if you insist on him not doing AirBnB there is to have to move anyway, even if someone ordered him to stop doing that, because you canât control the landlord getting pissed off and raising the rent, inviting a temple acrobatic troupe to live there rent-free, or otherwise making your living there just impossibly uncomfortable.
It sucks. But thatâs life in Taiwan. Many of us still love it despite these things. And for everyone there potentially comes a time when âthese thingsâ become too irritating, and the decision has to be made whether to stay in Taiwan or not. And also, for every time you get screwed by a situation like this, thereâs another one to balance it off where you really should have to do XYZ but in practice you donât have to, and itâs better for you.