Property management company Aimco sues Airbnb over sublets

Now, more than two months since the Denver-based property management real estate market giant, Aimco, filed their lawsuit against Airbnb in Miami-Dade County’s Circuit Court system, their case might finally be getting its day in court. The publicly-traded plaintiff in this case alleges that the defedant, a popular short-term rental website, encouraged its users to engage in the illegal subletting of their units at both Miami’s Bay Parc Plaza and South Beach’s Famingo Towers apartments complexes.

The filing of this lawsuit comes at a time when both Miami and Miami Beach’s mayors have been seeking to quash their resident’s abilities to offer up their properties on short-term rental sites like Airbnb. These two city representatives have voiced concerns that both their county and neighboring ones lose out on substantial amounts of revenue that they would otherwise be generating if they could collect tourism taxes on the largely unregulated rental of properties through these sites.

For its part, Aimco claims it has been able to document dozens or more instances in which its tenants have engaged in sub-letting their properties through Airbnb in the last year alone. From Aimco’s perspective, the ever-increasing trend of using the site for their residents to rent out their properties has allegedly resulted not only in disrupting everyday goings ons on its properties, but has anecdotally posed a safety risk for the management company’s tenants and employees as well.

To illustrate their point about the disturbances that the increasingly popular trend has caused, Aimco contends some of its tenants have looked to have their leases broken upon realizing that many of their fellow residents were subletting their properties. Amico contends that their role is make decisions that keeps their full-time residents as top priority. They maintain that residents who deliberately breach their leases make that a difficult task.

If you find yourself in a situation where your contract with your landlord has been breached, then a Melbourne, Florida, real estate class action attorney may be able to guide you in your legal matter.

Source: The Real Deal, “Aimco’s suit against Airbnb targets sublets at Bay Parc Plaza and the Flamingo,” Francisco Alvarado, April 12, 2017