He will have to repay a fortune for having sublet his apartment on Airbnb

A little lie that costs him dearly. Our colleagues from Figaro had access to a decision of the Paris court which condemned a tenant to a fine of… 221,000 euros. The reason for this staggering sum to be reimbursed? The man sublet his 30m² apartment in the heart of Paris without the agreement of its owners. Worse, it even seems that he had calculated his move from the start. Because according to the information revealed, in 2016, the defendant put his apartment in sublets barely a week after having rented it.

For almost five years, the man had decided to sublet the premises on Airbnb, until the end date of the lease in December 2020. Problem, the previous summer, the owners realized that their property was occupied illegally . According to Le Figaro, they dispatch a bailiff who finds the illegality. In the minutes consulted by our colleagues, the person interviewed on site who had rented on the platform said “not to know the tenant in title”.

198,000 euros of gain

The elements recovered by the owners’ lawyer will give them cold sweats. Airbnb will provide them with occupancy records, and amazement: their apartment has been rented 329 times since 2016, for a total of 1,114 days and an estimated gain of 198,000 euros. “A commercial activity,” fulminates the plaintiffs’ lawyer. In addition, the unscrupulous tenant is doubly in violation because the apartment has been rented more than 120 times, but it is prohibited in cities with more than 200,000 inhabitants, recalls Le Figaro. He is just as responsible as the platform which should have blocked his account when the number of days was exceeded.

But another element will come to aggravate his case. According to the owners, the sublet no longer paid his rent and owed them 11,370 euros. In his defence, the man explained that the owners agreed on his intention to sublet, but justice reminded him that the law was very clear: “A clause prohibits the subletting of the premises by the lessee , without the written consent of the lessor”. In addition to the rents collected and those he had not paid, he also had to reimburse repair costs for deterioration of the apartment. As well as attorney fees. What discourage him to start again.