HSR Files Suit Against Airbnb and Former Landlords for Illegal Evictions

Hadsell Stormer & Renick, LLP filed suit against Airbnb and landlords of a four unit apartment building in the Fairfax neighborhood of Los Angeles. In the lawsuit, the Plaintiffs allege that Airbnb and their former landlord, Carol Alsman, violated City and state law by illegally evicting them in order to re-rent the units through Airbnb. In the complaint, the tenants claim that Airbnb is liable as the sort term rental platform failed to re-rent the apartments back to tenants at their prior rent as it was required to do. The landlord filed documents with the City claiming that they were removing the entire apartment building from the market for five years in order to justify the forced eviction. But just weeks after the tenants had been evicted, the Landlord turned around and re-offered the properties on Airbnb at rates that were 10x the rent they were allowed to charge.