Paris tenant must pay €221,000 for unauthorised subletting on Airbnb

A tenant was ordered to pay his renters RM1.02mil after illegally subletting the apartment on AirBnB for four years, while still failing to pay his own rent. — REUTERS

In Paris, the tenant of a two-bedroom flat has been ordered to pay over €221,000 (RM1.02mil) after subletting it without permission via the Airbnb platform.

Between 2016 and 2020, the man had sublet the flat 329 times and collected around €198,000 (RM918,949), the sum he must now transfer to the owners of the flat according to the verdict, the newspaper Le Figaro reported on Monday.

In addition, there is a total of €11,370 (RM52,770) in rent arrears because the man had not paid his own rent in full despite the extra income.

Repairs for €11,500 (RM53,373) were due in the flat, which he also has to pay for, according to the court.

The owners only noticed in June 2020 that their flat was being misused as Airbnb accommodation. The data they requested from the platform showed that the flat had been rented out on 1,114 days for an average price of US€178 (RM826) per day.

They themselves had charged a monthly rent of €1,380 (RM6,404) without bills.

For the judgement, the judges relied on a clause in the tenancy agreement according to which subletting requires the written consent of the owners. This was not the case.

The tenant and Airbnb also violated the French regulation for cities with more than 200,000 inhabitants, according to which rented flats may be sublet for tourism for a maximum of 120 days a year.

The platform should have in fact blocked the tenant's account at a certain moment. However, this did not play a role in the ruling. – dpa