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New Airbnb policy would ban landlords from listing rentals if the tenant was recently evicted.

PORTLAND, OR (KPTV) – Airbnb announced a new policy Wednesday that bans landlords from listing rentals if a tenant was recently evicted.

Airbnb’s announcement comes about two weeks before Oregon’s eviction moratorium is set to expire. The company says it will ban new listings when a city notifies it that a tenant has been kicked out for not paying rent. The company says it wants to prevent landlords from profiting while removing people from their homes in the aftermath of the pandemic.

Andrew Kalloch, the senior policy development manager at Airbnb, says the company’s COVID-19 Renter Protection Policy is designed to protect tenants who may have been protected by the federal CDC moratorium on evictions.

“Those tenants are generally those who are evicted for non-payment of rent, not for other types of reasons. As we understand there are millions of Americans who are behind on rent, many of them severely affected by the coronavirus pandemic, and Airbnb wants to do its part to help as the moratorium comes to a close,” Kalloch said.

According to a study by Portland State University, as many as 89,000 Oregon households are behind on rent, and as many as 200,000 face problems making rent each month.

 

FOX 12 spoke with Christian Bryant, President of RPM Education. He said for most landlords an eviction turned vacation rental is typically a last resort.

“That is absolutely a tipping point, it’s not necessarily a time when landlords say ‘Okay, I want to do the vacation stuff so I gonna make up a reason to evict a tenant.’ It’s more the opposite way where a tenant does something, they’re forced to go through a messy eviction, has a horrible experience with it cause most of them are, and just decides I don’t want to be in the business of kicking people out of their home. I want to be in the business of making them happy,” Bryant said.

Oregon’s eviction moratorium has been in place since April 2020, and it expires at the end of June. Starting in July, renters will have to start paying rent or could face eviction. Renters have until next February to make payments on previous months they missed.

Airbnb’s policy will be in place until at least the end of this year.

 

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