Not only forbid it Athens Court of First Instance the professional use of an apartment apartment under the short-term lease regime (Airbnb), but threatened the owner if the apartment is not used as a residence from now on, a penalty of EUR 1,000 for any breach of the restrictions imposed by the court decision.
This decision is now jurisprudence in similar cases, since it was considered that «horizontal apartment properties used for short-term leases are not actually considered private dwellings, but are converted into tourist accommodation.».
At the same time, the manager of a building in Athens and at the same time an apartment owner appealed to the courts, claiming that, in breach of the rules and the act establishing the horizontal ownership of apartment building, apartment owner last summer registered on a website (Airbnb, Booking etc.) that her apartment is available as a tourist accommodation with the short term rental system (Airbnb).
Furthermore, the operator pointed out that its customers Airbnb «on a daily basis they are harassing both during their stay in the apartment where they live and in the public areas, even during the hours of quietness, and also taking actions relating to the overtensive use of public spaces and their unusual deterioration, while also issues of breach of the safety of the building arise with the uncritical entry of third persons, disrupting the proper residence of residents in their own homes.».
The administrator asked the court, inter alia, to require the owner of that apartment to:
a/ download the advertising post for short leases from all online tourist accommodation search platforms,
b/ remove the box outside the apartment building it uses to place key to the main entrance,
c/ It shall cease in the future the lease of the apartment under the Airbnb regime and use it only as a residence. At the same time, he asked for a court decision to be handed down to have a clause—a threat of financial punishment and personal detention for any violation of what the court decides.
The Regulation
As the Judges state, according to the Rules, the Chambers «intended to serve as dwellings, and any use other than residence is prohibited». Provision which has not been amended so far.
«The will of the owners», as is apparent from the building regulation, was «prohibition on the use of apartments as a hotel or hotel type or for the provision of services causing a large number of visitors or unusual noise» And the ban on Airbnb, because «horizontal properties used for short-term leases are not actually considered private dwellings, but are converted into tourist accommodation.». In that regard, the Court of First Instance refers to a decision of the Athens Court of Appeal concerning a similar case.
They do not fail to make it clear that in the regulation «the prohibition on the use of horizontal properties for short-term leases is not explicitly stated, due to the inability to predict such leases at the time of its preparation».
However, «This gap should be completed taking into account the principles of good faith and users of trade morals, interpreting the alleged will of the Contracting Parties if they were aware of the possibility of such use of horizontal properties at the time of the preparation of the Regulation».
The main problem for apartment managers is that the many owners of Airbnb are foreign strangers and cannot come into contact with them
According to the decision, «such accommodation, temporarily staying tourists during their short-day holidays, constitute undisputed tourist accommodation of a hotel type, while a feature of the performance of this designation is the fact that the tenants, before or during their stay, are not aware of the Regulation, detailing the rights and obligations governing the relations of co-owners and tenants, as is the case in urban housing leases, which include a special provision on condition of the contract lease».
In addition, «guests, who are usually foreigners who make use of the apartment for a few days (3-5 days each) for holiday reasons, are likely to be harassing within the apartment, but also in the common areas of the building, both when installing and leaving with the transfer of their individual equipment, but also when adapting the accommodation to their own alternating needs (replacement of furniture, use of facilities), as well as when using the common garden», noted in the judgment.
Tourist accommodation
All of this has disrupted the quiet and daily peace of co-owners and the proper functioning of the apartment building. From the file «It was assumed that the person in question uses its property for a purpose other than that of residence, in particular as a tourist accommodation, which is specific to the concept of hotel, after hosting an unknown number of persons alternated at regular intervals of a few days in violation of the Regulation».
Finally, the manager's application was deemed legal and accepted. The court obliged the owner of this apartment «to temporarily cease the infringement of the regulation establishing the apartment building, in particular to cease and not to repeat in the future the professional use of its horizontal ownership under the short-term lease regime». It was also threatened against the penalty of EUR 1,000 for any violation of its operative order.
Photo by EUROKINISSI
