Two holiday let platforms, AirBnB and Booking.com, have refused to cooperate with authorities that have requested the removal of illegally let properties.
Social housing providers and local authorities in England have asked the platforms to remove properties listed by social housing tenants. It is illegal for social housing tenants to sublet their home as a holiday let. Social housing providers say that, in doing so, homeless families have been deprived of secure housing.
There is a requirement for tenants to inform councils and housing associations once a property is no longer needed and used as a permanent residence. It is a criminal offence to use such properties to generate illegal income.
Campaign group, the Tenancy Fraud Forum (TFF), found one tenant advertising his housing association home for £4,000 a week – but the tenant themselves had never lived in the property. Housing association lawyer and chairperson of TFF, Katrina Robinson, said that “AirBnB puts profit before conscience”.
The average cost to taxpayers of every fraudulently let home is around £42,000 over three years, and buildings insurance is invalidated.
A London council spent around £20,000 on a court order to force AirBnB into cooperating with a fraud crackdown. Despite this, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea said that the platform still refused to remove listings relating to two estates that came under the Prevention of Social Housing Fraud Act. The council has 3,000 people on its housing register and incidents of reported tenancy fraud.
Under its terms and conditions, AirBnB can share its hosts’ personal information for fraud prevention, however, it says that privacy laws prevent any details being passed to landlords without a court order. The Data Protection Act allows personal information to be shared with relevant authorities for law enforcement.
Islington Council said the platform thought that the Data Protection Act didn’t apply to it, despite the council spending thousands of pounds applying for court orders to help identify property illegally sublet as a holiday let.
Another social housing provider, Notting Hill Genesis, said that a succession of guests arriving at one illegal sublet had caused “regular disturbances” and damage to communal areas. One resident said they lived fearfully due to the “unsavoury” landlords. Booking.com initially refused to remove the listing without the permission of the fraudulent landlord but said it had now done so pending an investigation.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities says it expects firms to abide by the “applicable” terms of the Accommodation Agencies Act. The Act requires providers to obtain proof of ownership from hosts. However, neither AirBnB or Booking.com do so, and say they are not “accommodation agents”.