Airbnb gets away with breaking consumer law
Quebec’s consumer protection law says posted prices need to be honest and the advertiser can’t be hiding additional fees and extras, but Airbnb has been breaking this rule now for years and the government is seemingly powerless to act.
Ian 10:06 on 2019-07-18 Permalink
Considering how many levels of government are incapable of acting against them I can only applaud AirBnB for their impressive ability to find the right person(s) to pay off over the years. I only wonder what it took. Yachts? Overstuffed brown envelopes? Island cruises with powerful friends? I hope we find out one day, even if only to satisfy my morbid curiosity.
DeWolf 11:20 on 2019-07-18 Permalink
I suspect the reality is less glamorous, Ian. The exact same thing happens in dozens of other cities around the world. I find it hard to imagine that Airbnb has some enormous global brown-envelope division that has managed to go unnoticed, even in places with much more stringent anti-corruption practices than Quebec, like Singapore and Hong Kong – both of which are filled with Airbnbs that violate local housing laws. I think the reality is that in most jurisdictions, a platform like this doesn’t match up with existing laws, and even when laws are changed, there just aren’t enough tools and resources to ensure they are being respected.
The big problem is that Airbnb itself has shrugged off any responsibility for policing its listings, and it has been fighting hard in courtrooms all over the world to make sure it doesn’t have to make sure its listings comply with local laws.
As long as that’s the case, local governments don’t have much power. There are just too many individual listings that may or may not be illegal, and the only way to find out is to invest tons of money in expensive sting operations. It’s one thing to see a listing online and quite another to prove in court that it shouldn’t be there. Without some kind of registration system that is enforced within the platform, I don’t see how the problem can be resolved.
thomas 11:44 on 2019-07-18 Permalink
Does anyone know how to report illegal Airbnbs? Messages to my councillor, Alex Norris, have been ignored.
DeWolf 12:39 on 2019-07-18 Permalink
It seems like there are no good options. From today’s Gazette story about the Soeurs-Grises party pad that has been in the news lately:
“Blum has been in touch with an inspector at the city of Montreal, who looked into the situation last week. The city confirmed to the Montreal Gazette that it had received a complaint about the operation of an illegal tourist accommodation and commercial activity out of the address. The information was passed on to Revenu Québec and the host was informed, according to city press representative Audrey Gauthier. She said a city inspector has been assigned to the case.”
That doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. Also, guess who owns the apartment in question? None other than… Shiller Lavy. I guess they’re on a mission to destroy Montreal’s residential streets along with its commercial ones!
https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/airbnb-party-pad-a-year-long-headache-for-old-montreal-neighbours
Ephraim 14:22 on 2019-07-18 Permalink
Thomas… Revenu Quebec, use this form… https://www.revenuquebec.ca/fr/services-en-ligne/formulaires-et-publications/details-courant/lm-6/
Supposedly, if they also committed tax fraud, you are supposed to get a percentage of the amount that they recover.
Ephraim 15:10 on 2019-07-18 Permalink
As I have said before. All RQ has to do is offer a reward for the denonciation equal to 25% of the fine and tell people to make a 4 day reservation on any AirBnB that isn’t legal. At $2500 per day, that’s $10K in fine and a 25% reward is $2500. Want to make bets that people will go hunting, making reservations and denouncing AirBnBs that are illegal… but this is part of the plan that starts in September… you will have to post a traceable number on your listing so that RQ can trace you. AirBnB is sending out emails to hosting trying to put pressure on the government. They will do almost anything to avoid being regulated. But the cities that have regulated them are doing much better than those that haven’t.
The problem is that most people don’t know what is and what isn’t illegal. What is definitely illegal is an apartment that is wholly rented for less than 30 days and available with no one living there. This is commercial activity. They also need a rating from the CITQ as well as posting a CITQ sign outside. In fact, not posting the CITQ sign and not being listed on the CITQ website is generally proof of illegal activity. While the city says it can’t do anything, that isn’t really 100% true… they can at least put them on notice for change in tax definition…. I’m sure that an entire building with residences would quickly act if they were finding out that their property tax was going up 5 fold.
What isn’t illegal… owner occupied, meaning that you are renting a room and you live on the premises (such as B&Bs, rooms in a shared apartment, etc.) As long as someone lives there all the time. And renting your personal space while out of town on a short vacation… not if you move out of town. Your clothing must be present, you must be getting your mail there, etc. You can prove that it is your permanent residence and that you live there, usually 11 months of the year. In other words, you rent it out on vacation.
As for Schiller-Lavy, I hope they have been collecting GST/QST because they are subject to it. And that they have been issuing tax receipts. The city can charge them commercial property tax and the fine is instantly doubled. Incidentally, the $5K minimum is the first offence…. not repeated offence, it goes up each offence.
Here is the stats….about 70% of all listings are in the category of likely illegal. And 41% are people with multiple listings…. these are most likely the people running illegal underground and untaxed hotels that cost the city, the province and the federal government tax revenues. Take a look at https://www.airbnb.ca/users/show/72761895?locale=en for example…. that’s 67 individual apartments they are renting on AirBnB. And remember that these cost YOU money, because if they aren’t paying their fair share of income tax…. you have to make up for it with your taxes.
Blork 16:02 on 2019-07-18 Permalink
Regarding the Shiller Lavy connection, my understanding is that SL owns the building, and they rent it to some guy who rents dozens of properties around the city and uses them all for Airbnb. I have that info second-hand but I’m fairly confident it’s accurate. In that case it isn’t SL who is culpable, but his renter (although I’m sure SL has full knowledge of the nature of the rentals).
Ephraim 18:27 on 2019-07-18 Permalink
You should see some of the discussions these AirBnB people have… like asking if they should bother changing sheets between guests, how to deal with guests who have sex, or people using the apartments for escorts. And a discussion about Montreal and shills renting with stock images and multiple accounts to avoid taxes and the law. And some of the reviews on other sites where they talk about being shuttled to further and further places and cancelling people to drive up the prices, etc.