I am a landlord: I let a single house, to a family. New regulations came in on 1st September, requiring the property to be registered. I already had a valid gas safety certificate, expiring in 2 months, and an electrical safety certificate good for two more years. Registration also required an energy performance certificate, which I had.
But collecting all these documents, along with the precise dimensions of each room in the house, including the kitchen and bathroom, has been a terrible hassle.
I'm a good landlord; I don't mess with the rent mid-term, I fix things quickly, aand I don't bother my tenants. They are good tenants; they are German, and Germans know how rental is supposed to work.
I live in a flat, and my neighbour is an AirBnB, whose owner lives in Bavaria, and whose "host" lives in another town. It seems to be a nice clean apartment; but it's illegal, because local regs ban holiday lets in homes that are suitable for residential use. AirBnB don't give a shit. I notified the local authority, and they're trying to close it down. The "hosts" have appealed, so this saga has been going on for a year.
The problems, for me, are that I share the front-door of the block with complete strangers (where my post is delivered); the guests don't understand UK recycling rules, and dump mixed waste in my recycling bin (resulting in non-collection); and sometimes they have noisy parties. More generally, most of my neighbours seem to be investment properties; there are no kids around here, and I only know a handful of neighbours. AirBnB has sucked the life out of this neighbourhood.
But it's also unreasonable to expect AirBNB to keep up with the uncountable legal jurisdictions of the world. Every locality - down to the city block - could have different rules.
If your neighbor is violating the law, that's your neighbor's fault. If you want to do something about it, you have the power.
Is that the same as banning holiday lets in homes entirely? What does a house or proper apartment that's not suitable for residential use look like?
Requiring a letter explicitly allowing a listing from the managing agent on record prior to publishing the listing wouldn't be particularly onerous. Of course their listings would drop dramatically since most aren't by the book, but feature not a bug?
These tech platform marketplaces are willing to do lots of AI/ML hocus-pocus & throw bodies at things like targeted ads, onboarding new suppliers (drivers/landlords), whatever helps their KPIs, etc.. but not on following the law/rules. That is because it would reduce sales, knowing that they are implicitly allowing illegalities on their market places.
Why does a technology platform get to automate & scale in a less compliant manner?
Yeah, I'm sure the code is kind of hard to write, that doesn't mean you can violate laws & contracts, because the code is challenging.
We have so many examples of these platforms disrupting locals & human jobs to automate & scale globally, while ignoring laws, regulations, etc. Just because its easier to make money assisting illegality doesn't mean it should be legal to do so.
Look at all the work Banks have to do on AML/KYC/etc to make sure organized crime, narcotics, terrorism and sanctioned nationals money does not get to use the USD financial system. It's not perfect of course. And it's hard for sure, theres entire organizations at every banks with 100s or 1000s of employees responsible. Why does Silicon Valley always get a free pass?
Damage is obviously a problem and not the issue at hand.
