'AITA for not allowing Airbnb guests to use my patio even though it was on the listing?'
"AITA for not allowing Airbnb guests to use my patio?"
I bought a flat as an immigrant a few years ago in a bad reputation street of a bad reputation city in a bad reputation country in Europe. I won't say that it was just luck, but the country became an attractive country to visit, the city developed a lot, and my street, being in the center, became very attractive to visitors.
Now my street has been fully renovated and so has the façade of my building, because we got public funds for that. But the inside is still prewar grey because we are fine with it.
My flat is the only one that opens to the courtyard and after speaking to the neighbours they were all enthusiastic for me to turn my corner of the courtyard into something pretty, on whichever way I felt. In this kind of buildings it is defined how much each apartment owns of the land, but not delimited.
So I own, let's say, 5% of the land. Usually I would use it for a parking space but it is not like you have a delimited parking space and since I don't drive I asked the neighbours if I could take the corner next to my door as mine. This was a no parking space and everyone enthusiastically agreed to let me make a mini garden/patio.
After the city and the street blew up with tourism someone did some legal trickery to buy the flats on top of mine that were supposed to be saved for low income people and turn them into Airbnb. We are not happy about it for many reasons, starting with those flats were supposed to be for actual low income people.
But to the actual conflict: I let my neighbours use my patio, but I've been kicking Airbnb guests out of it. Apparently the Airbnb host posts pictures of my little corner of the courtyard as a public space. I don't think it's a public space since I own part of the land and the Airbnb owner does not, and it has been accepted that this is my portion of the land.
Now the Airbnb owner is saying that he will sue me for discrimination since I share my little patio with the other neighbours but I don't allow tourists in it and he has had some negative reviews. I'm absolutely safe legally, but morally AITA for not allowing tourists in my space when I let neighbours use it?
The internet had a lot of thoughts.
Such_Bus9665 wrote:
NTA. Big difference between neighbors who live there and contribute to the community vs. random Airbnb tourists who’ll be gone in two days. You didn’t agree to host strangers, and that guy using your patio to boost his listing is shady af.
OP responded:
This is how I feel! I asked my neighbours if I could plant stuff and they would be willing to move their parking spaces a little bit further. They agreed enthusiastically to have a green corner in exchange to move their parking. They did something for me as neighbours so my gardening efforts and the money I spent on nice garden furniture should benefit them.
But some random people, they didn't do shit, and this is on my doorway and by my bedroom window. My neighbours don't party on my patio until 2am, and if they feel like doing it I can tell them to sod off to their own home. Tourists were not acting like they realised I actually live there on the ground floor and all their bullshit affects me.
Conflictgullible32 wrote:
It’s your private patio, not public space. You can invite whoever you want to use it, or not. The Airbnb owner is the AH for advertising space that doesn’t belong to them. I feel bad for the tourists, but that’s on the host — they deserve the bad reviews. NTA.
OP responded:
It is...half. It is not a public space because it's the inner courtyard of a building. But it is not legally delimited who is the actual owner of every square meter of courtyard. We never needed to do that and always managed ourselves: when I bought my apt and told the guy who was parking his second car in what is now my patio.
He was cool with taking the second car somewhere else and we never had to fight over who has a right over which particular spaces. But I also don't have a fence around my patio (because I let the neighbours use it) or it is written legally anywhere that those particular square meter belong to me.
Nester1953 wrote:
Why should you permit free use of your land for the financial benefit of someone else? You take all the risk in terms of someone being injured on your property, and you'll be stuck with the higher insurance premiums if that happens.
Moreover, while your neighbors have an incentive to keep your patio nice, and are known to one another should one of them mess up, Air B&B customers don't have equivalent accountability.
It's your land. You invite whomever you wish. It's not discrimination to exclude others unless (in my country) you're doing so because of race, religion, or other specified categories. And that's not what you're doing. NTA.
OP responded:
The land is shared between many owners: it's not like my patio is exclusive mine legally. Although the Airbnb owner owns no part of the land. It's complicated. This building has had commonal land since 1908 and never had a problem where we need to actually delimit parcels of the courtyard.
Firm-Molasses-4913 wrote:
NTA. Can you go to the listing and add a comment that the photo is not accurate and guests do not have access to your patio?
OP responded:
We can't find the listing :/ we have tried to let people know that this is a residential building.
Tarsipes wrote:
NTA and f Airbnb. A little side note though. While you might have gotten approval from others to use that part, it is unlikely that it's actually yours. When you say you have 5% ownership of the parcel it means you have 5% share in the whole, so every owner of a fiat in that building also owns a % of your little corner.
The only way to make it truly yours is to legally divide the land or add a condition in the land title register that you have the sole right to use that particular section of the parcel. So be advised that there might in fact be some legal basis to their claim, but if you physically have sole access to that part of the patio it will be virtually impossible for them to enforce that.
CenterofChaos wrote:
NTA. See if you can find the AirBnB listing, if it shows the patio take screenshots. Tell AirBnB your neighbors are fraudulently using your property. When AirBnB guests are on it tell them you're sorry their host is being deceptive and you've tried to get the listing to remove your patio as a feature but have been unsuccessful.
They'll like report it to AirBnB for you. Your patio, your rules. You know the neighbors you're inviting over and don't know the rando guests.