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 am I the asshole for not allowing tourists in my space when I let neighbours use it?
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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 am I the asshole for not allowing tourists in my space when I let neighbours use it?
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OP has offered the following explanation for why they think they might be the asshole:
> I might be the asshole because I don’t let tourists use my little patio
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Contest mode is 1.5 hours long on this post.
It’s your private patio, not public space. You can invite whoever you want to use it, or not. The Airbnb owner is the asshole 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.
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
Absolutely NTA, easily. The Airbnb owner sure is though.
I had a similar problem several years ago btw. I used to live in a small town in the U.S. that blew up as a tourist area, and a lot of greedy rich people started buying up a lot of the properties and turned them into Airbnbs. One of them was unfortunately right next to me, and they apparently advertised my backyard and fire pit area as part of it. I had to kick so many tourists out of there (for me it was also a safety issue, as I was absolutely not going to trust strangers to use the fire pit), and some of them got really nasty about it. When the Airbnb owner threatened legal action against me, I told him that he and I both knew he had zero ground to stand on, and if he continued being a nuisance, I’d put up a big ugly fence on the property line (just two feet behind his building’s windows). Nothing more came of it after that, though I did still have to kick tourists out of the yard from time to time.
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?
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
Absolutely NTA.
If they won’t take photos of your courtyard down, you should contact the company.
NTA he is neighbors and friends are different than the public no one knows anything about
NTA. You don’t rent the space out, or gain any financial advantage from the rental income, so why should your exploitative neighbour be able to rent out his flat with the added selling point of your patio/garden?
Put up a simple sign that says ‘residents only’.
NTA and fuck Airbnb.
A litte 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.
Counter sue
NTA
NTA, but double check with your neighbors, except for the Airbnb owners, that they agree with your take on everything.
If they agree that this is a solid answer, all the residents can use it but not guests then put up a sign. I don’t follow the geometry so not sure wher. But wherever it is that they have access to, some sign that says the patio is private property, and free for the use of building residents, but not available for temporary paying guests, or whatever term works best in your region.
Just increase the price and allow it lol
NTA. If I let my neighbors chill in my backyard it doesn’t mean new neighbors or even worse their air BNB guests get to come over too, the fact it’s an apartment style patio shouldn’t change that
NTAH. It’s your space and you can pick and choose who you allow in your space and who you don’t.
NTA. This is your own little garden. You should counter sue to have him remove the photos of your space from his listing. If you had taken the parking space, he wouldn’t be including it in the listing (I hope).
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.
NTA and fuck airbnb
NTA and report the airbnb host
YTA
People here don’t understand how commonhold works. You owe 5% share in the land under the building but not any particular land. Your neighbours as shareholders agreed that you can make changes to a certain part of the yard. It doesn’t make it yours or give you more rights.
People like you are frowned upon in commonholds as they try to claim they have exclusive rights to a piece of common property because they put something on it or simply because it’s adjacent to their door. Everybody hate such guys. It’s like people who believe parking space on a public road next to their house is exclusively theirs.
You don’t need to provide improvements but as long as neighbours are all right with AirBnB guests, they can enjoy your improvements like everybody else. This land is not yours to gatekeep.