All Forum Posts by: Kevin Coggins

 The user in this example would be the short-term renter, the source would be the property owner (or renter). The medium would be AirBnB. It's like regulating cars because a drug dealer drives a car to sell his illegal goods.

I'm glad you see that individuals should be held responsible for their actions, not the medium used.

If I want to rent out my house on AirBnB, what would I need to submit? 

1. Copy of Deed
2. HOA Rules and Regulations (with amendments)
3. City Ordinances
4. County Regulations
5. State laws
6. Federal Laws
7. Government ID
8. Insurance Policy
9. Inspector to confirm house data is accurate
10. Updated photos after every stay to verify house condition
11. IRS Rules showing I acknowledge them?
12. Do we need neighbors to sign of on the rentals too?

I'm sure I'm forgetting a few things, maybe somebody can help me out.

So if AirBnB just removes their liability policy it would be fine? That doesn't make any sense. AirBnB is just like craigslist, except they charge a fee, and craigslist offers many other things besides just vacation rentals. Both are mediums people use to find vacation rentals, one just happens to charge a cut and offer liability insurance. 

If people wanted to rent a hotel, you're right they'd use hotels.com...but clearly they don't and that's why they use these other sites! 

This whole argument is silly to be honest. If I buy a book about wholesaling on BiggerPockets and I go wholesaling and it's illegal where I live (me and 500 other people in my area). Does the owners/city then sue BiggerPockets for allowing us to buy a book on wholesaling?

@Account Closed "If there is a pattern of abuse, as is the case with airBNB, you tackle the problem at the source." 

The source is the tenant, AirBnB is just the medium used to find the renter. One can use CL, VRBO, HomeAway, Facebook, Nextdoor, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. Maybe I am wrong, but AirBnB is still around and so are companies like Uber...we shall see

If your tenant is breaking the lease, then fine and/or evict them. If they aren't breaking the lease by doing STR, then maybe you need a new lease, or a clause to get X percent of revenues. Either way, I'm not sure why the government is needed to save us from tenants renting out their apt/house?

To kind of add to what @Cody L. said previously, it seems like Aimco is chasing the $$$$, instead of who should be held liable. Just an example of how this kind of situation should probably be handled, instead of suing AirBnB:

My friend was trying to rent out his condo for the Super Bowl here, you could easily make $1,000+ over the weekend with a half decent location. His HOA sent him a letter because they found his listing on AirBnB and told him if it wasn't removed he'd be fined.

Maybe Aimco should go that route and get to the source of these listings.

@Account Closed But by breaking Aimco's policy, that is not a criminal offense, and considering they don't have an agreement with Aimco, how are they held to that lease? That is between the tenant and Aimco. If you buy weed online from a company in say China, is the company held responsible for sending you the weed or are you? It may be completely legal where they are based out of to sell weed, but because it's illegal for you to buy it, doesn't mean they shouldn't be able to sell their weed. 

It's like if a wholesaler is illegally marketing a property on here, is biggerpockets liable? Would they be liable if I connected with a contractor on here who scammed me?

In both cases, I don't see how the use of a third party platform somehow makes that platform liable. Unless Craigslist has been held liable for all the scams/armed robberies/murders that have occurred on there, I seriously doubt anything has changed.

The only way I see anything happening, is if somebody wants to send a message to these "third party platforms" to show that they are liable for the content/transactions on their websites/apps. But, I won't hold my breath for that, even if there's victory in a lower level court it'd likely lose an appeal.

AirBnB isn't leasing them though, AirBnB is just a platform that allows people to advertise properties available for rent. They're connecting the STR "owners" (or not owners), with STR seekers. Whether they need to verify the ownership criteria is another question - but others don't (FB, CL, EBay, etc). I got scammed on a site coincidentally bought by AirBnB, since it's just a platform, it isn't their fault the person used fraudulent CC's to transfer me money. Then they caught it mid-transfer (transfer take days) and cancelled it, victim-less crime in their eyes! Although I told them I lost $300 over it and a pair of Rockets playoff tickets, learned a lesson that no internet companies are responsible for anything these days.

You found one more than me! I was wondering why I kept looking, but I also wanted to try to wrap my head around it all. But I think there's enough posted to give people an idea of what's going on before spending money on services.