TER General Board
Can treating Airbnb like prostitution make it kosher where it is banned?
I thought about renting out a spare bedroom to make some extra cash. Problem is both my condo and town ban Airbnb ! I am wondering are there sites like TER for renting your place on a "suggested donation" basis? In other words there is no explicit price. The price is not advertised and only known by direct messaging the host. Would this circumvent the whole illegality of it from my condo and town's point of view? How could they ever prove money exchanged hands ? Isn't what happens between consenting adults non of their business?
To me these rules that ban airbnbs are a violation of my personal property rights. Imagine if these rules extended to other property you own like your car. I know folks are going to say they don't want random strangers coming and going from their condo complexes. Again , it is none of their business. As the owner of the unit I am still responsible for them. They have to abide by the same rules as any other guests. The fact that money has exchanged hands does not change the situation.At least in the Boston area, investors were buying up condos and other apartments and renting them out exclusively as AirBnB and not living there at all. It was driving up the cost of housing for people who needed a place to live. I think you can still rent out via AirBnB but there might be occupancy requirements or "number of days" per time period limitations.
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A few years ago, there was a guy who was (cheating) on welfare and had a subsidized apartment in a Boston public housing project. He actually lived in Florida and was renting out his Boston apartment via AirBnB many days per month. He got caught, lost his welfare, lost his apartment, and, if memory serves, was provided with free housing in a Boston penitentiary.
Are you talking about creating an incall space that is available for clients to rent to bring their dates - hopefully cheaper then their date's in call fee and the cost of day use?
No. I am talking about offering the room to regular folks on a donation basis instead of explicit price per day.
Owning a condo, it's not your "property"... the real property is owned by the condo association. You own the "air"... the space inside the condo.
Do your condo documents prohibit renters or is it a local ban? Based on your post, it appears to be a local ordinance. Most municipalities have ordinances or rules prohibiting many things.. unregistered vehicles.. trash sitting..the height of additions. You can't pick & choose. Any of these could be interpreted as restrictions on the use of your property. If it's that important.. sell your place & move to a city where it's not prohibited
Yes I am aware of all that. The fact is the condo allows you to guests over with no restrictions. Whether these guests pay me or not is none of their business. So my workaround idea is to offer the room on a suggested donation basis like what providers do. Would that get me out of the whole "illegal" aspect?
...any "short term rental". This is becoming very common, if not standard SOP in HOA type developments (condos, rv parks etc).
However, some may have restrictions to a set amount of STR per year and many of these do not exclude monthly rental. Where it may get dicey is if a prostitution bust occurs within the confines of your property. If you have subleased the space knowing what may occur, you'll likely be pulled into a charge of assisting in prostitution and potential human trafficking allegations. The HT element will usually get tossed but it sure does make good headlines for local LEO admins and career aspiring DAs. Or....mistakenly sublet to a meth cook and you may find yourself on the hook for the whole building becoming a HAZMAT super fund site!
If no shenanigans take place, then you'd have a profitable loose tenant/landlord relationship and there are countless sites that can facilitate this. Facebook Marketplace, local newspaper, Craigslist, hang on ad on the grocery store bulletin board...
... if you can "get around a law" by doing "something," the answer will always be "no."
If you don't like the law, change it or find someplace where that law does not apply.
(Yes, yes, yes.... I get the irony of posting that comment on TER.)
Life is good
The Cat 
or take the 3rd option. Break the law and realize what risks you're taking and accept they are just part of the world you've chosen to occupy.
But you're right, no one gets to have their cake and eat it too.
LOL
That vid is wrong on so many levels but funny as shit.
You win Best Hooker answer!
thisisalloneword1234,
There's a difference between what the "PROVIDERS" on sites like this site and people renting your condo. No person has sex with a building. So no it's no illegal to rent it out. It's just that your condo association does not want you to rent out your condo, because he/she does not want to deal with liability issues (Damage, Death & Etc) that may happen on the property.
Anaheim, California, which had a huge vacation home rental scene, banned people using their rental property for any rental less than 60 days. The reason was that houses in quiet neighborhoods were being rented out for bachelor parties, where 20 guys would come to a 3-bedroom residential home and party all night making a lot of noise, or an extended family would rent two homes in the same neighborhood (which were always furnished to maximize the number of sleeping beds for rate purposes), and use the swimming pools till late hours and spend a lot of time making noise in the street between the two homes. The problem mushroomed at the time because owners could take a house with a $2500/month mortgage payment and rent it out for $2500+ PER WEEK, so many were booked solid six months out. If the owners were smart enough to see what was coming and sell their rental BEFORE the ban took place, they were able to value it based on the income and not the property value as a single family home. I have a friend that sold two homes that were worth $500K at the time for $800K+ each, fully equipped and furnished as a vacation home, before the ban went into effect. Your situation also sounds like the privacy and quality of life of your neighbors is the driving force. I'm willing to bet there is no problem renting a house or room for an extended period, so if you could get a provider to rent your place as an incall location for several months, she would be treated as a long-term tenant. Of course, if one of her customers causes problems, there is probably no way for you not to be involved.
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