Drug dog raids at Airbnbs
Warning of legal challenges brewing for unsuspecting hosts
● A city building has been forced to launch monthly drug dog patrols due to busts at Airbnb apartments
● One was being used as a meth lab and a brothel
● The cases are at the extreme end of a growing problem amid the soaring popularity of Airbnb and similar companies
● Lawyers warn of a rush of legal challenges in the ‘grey area’ of unsuspecting hosts hiring out their homes for short stays
● It comes as new figures show nearly half of Airbnb hosts have avoided paying controversial bed taxes
At a central Auckland apartment building, the managers have begun monthly patrols with drug-sniffing dogs.
The routine began after two major drug busts at the 190-apartment building in the CBD. The units police targeted were sub-let through Airbnb.
Property manager Lisa Mak — who won’t name the building — said one of the apartments was booked for three months by a man who manufactured meth while his partner ran a brothel.
“They like the appeal of an Airbnb because they can hide very easily,” she said. “He would cook and she would sell her wares and his meth — until the police caught up with them.
“Prostitution isn’t illegal but she was having construction workers coming through in their muddy boots three or four at a time.
“That is horrible for anybody, let alone a lady staying with her kids next door.”
The drug cases are at the extreme end of what apartment owners are dealing with, as online accommodation providers like Airbnb grow in popularity in New Zealand.
Mak said specialised Airbnb companies had turned some Auckland apartment buildings into quasi-hotels, and often rented a ground-floor apartment to use as a reception area. Owner-occupiers in the central city faced a constant stream of cleaners, loud parties and strangers in their corridors.
The growth of Airbnb has also led to thorny issues for body corporates. Tanya Wood, special counsel at law firm Duncan Cotterill, said short-term use of units meant increased wear and tear in common areas, security concerns and potentially higher insurance costs for all apartment owners.
All of this was in a legal grey area, and Wood said she expected the first legal challenges to start arriving in New Zealand courts soon, as body corporates tested their rights.
In Los Angeles, where short-term letting is hugely popular, bylaws have capped the number of days properties can be rented on Airbnb a year. In New Zealand, Queenstown is introducing stricter rules for people wanting to rent their property online.
Under current New Zealand law, body corporates cannot block people from renting their apartments on Airbnb. Wood said they also could not pass on the higher costs of short-term letting — like maintenance — to the Airbnb hosts in the building.
The solution could be giving body corporates the ability to pass on costs related to increased wear and tear, Wood said. Another option could be a register of how each apartment was used, which prospective buyers could view.
Lockhart Legal director Josh Muir said Airbnb had been polarising for apartment owners.
“Generally speaking, in a body corporate scenario, those who are doing it love it. Those who aren’t doing it hate it.
“Body corporates could have discussions about complying with insurance and security rules, zoning requirements, not operating businesses in a residential area.
“Put rules in place around those, and when someone is running an Airbnb, which is quite clearly breaching rules, the body corporate or any of the owners could go ‘Hold up a second, you are breaching the body corporate rules’.”