July 22, 2016
After four years in a rent-controlled flat on Potrero Hill, Brian and Sarah Grzybowski were evicted, with their landlady saying she needed their apartment for her grown daughter. Months later, they stumbled across their former apartment advertised as a vacation rental. They investigated further and found it listed on Airbnb, FlipKey, Craigslist, Cozy and Zeus Living at prices ranging from $185 a night to $5,500 a month. Their rent had been $2,950. “We knew the way they got us out was hinky,” Brian said. Their landlady had characterized the maneuver as an owner-move-in eviction, a legal maneuver around renter protections that requires a landlord or a family member to have “honest intent” to live there three years. Sarah put it more simply: “It was disappointing,” she said. Their case encapsulates critics’ biggest beef with vacation rentals: Landlords and tenants have an incentive to turn regular housing into more-lucrative temporary rentals. Housing advocates say there are thousands of such conversions that drive up rents and increase scarcity….
Source: http://projects.sfchronicle.com/2016/airbnb/economics/
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