Community apartments in Vienna: City takes action against illegal Airbnb rental

Community apartments in Vienna: City takes action against illegal Airbnb rental

in Vienna there is a continued examination of the illegal subletting of municipal apartments, especially about platforms such as Airbnb. The city of Vienna has taken measures in recent years to counteract this abuse. This year, twelve leases have already been terminated due to violations. This is just a part of the efforts to uncover the illegal offers.

A large number of people who live in Vienna are registered in public residential projects. However, the city doubts that all of these 500,000 inhabitants actually live in their apartments. The city of Vienna has repeatedly followed cases of illegal sub -rental in recent years, with Airbnb playing a central role, since many landlords are trying to achieve financial profit with their municipal apartments.

The legal framework and the responsibility of Airbnb

In 2022, the Supreme Court ruled that Airbnb should not publish any advertisements for community apartments. This represents an important legal victory for the city. At the urging of the city, Airbnb is now obliged to disclose the income from the placement of accommodations in municipal buildings. From 2012 to 2022, the company reported a turnover of $ 137,000 from income for such offers without gaining a profit.

Despite this judgment, Airbnb's communication on this topic remains ambivalent. In its statement, the platform informs that all landlords in Vienna are informed about the prohibitions regarding municipal apartments, but the information in the help center is often unclear. The court ruling emphasizes that tenants who violate the rules can lose their apartments and also have to pay for process costs that can be significant.

challenges in the detection of illegal rentals

The city of Vienna has no longer left Airbnb to the investigation to investigate illegal sub -rental. Instead, a pilot project was established with a detective in 2021: inside to get to the bottom of illegal rental. However, the work of these investigators is complex, since the exact localization of the reported offers is often not possible. Only a general radius of 150 to 500 meters is displayed, which makes the work much more difficult.

The problem is not new; Already in 2016 there were 45 evacuations for similar offenses. In the past, the city relied on information from neighbors who noticed unusual activities in the house. But nowadays you follow a more systematic approach.

The city of Vienna is investing strongly in detective work. The "NSA Gewachungsdetektei GmbH" was commissioned to monitor for two years. However, this collaboration also brings challenges because the detective agency was involved in some controversy in the past.

The topic of illegal subletting is not just a problem in Vienna. Such problems are also observed in other cities such as Graz, Innsbruck or Salzburg. While Graz currently wants to trust its own neighborhood, the city administration checks whether the Viennese procedure could also apply there. Innsbruck follows his own references to misuse with its own task force.

The Mayor of Graz Elke Kahr also commented on this topic. She states that such practices in Graz are rather excluded because there are well -functioning control mechanisms.