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80 Norway teens used Airbnb rental for party: report

Police in Norway say they have seen several instances of properties being rented on Airbnb by teenagers and then used for parties.

Published: 13 November 2017 16:08 CET

80 Norway teens used Airbnb rental for party: report

Photo: Torstein Bøe / NTB scanpix

A house in Kristiansand was used for a party attended by 80 people without the consent of the owner, who rented it out for an ordinary overnight stay for six, reports Fædrelandsvennen.

Owner Eirik Styrvold Nordahl found out about the misuse of the property after being informed by neighbours, according to the report.

“I was incredibly shocked and thought at first that it couldn’t be true. It seemed very professional, there were two doormen outside. The partygoers had paid in advance. It’s apparently a new trend,” Nordahl told the newspaper.

The apartment had been reserved by an 18-year-old through the shared economy site.

“There were around 80 people present. According to what I was told afterwards, they were between the ages of 13-18,” Nordahl said to Fædrelandsvennen.

Damage to the property as a result of the party included a broken sofa and several chips to the flooring.

Nordahl’s advertisement on the Airbnb site states that smoking and parties are not permitted inside the property.

Wenche Reme Mosvold, acting head of Agder Police District’s crime prevention unit, said that similar incidents are known to authorities, writes news agency NTB.

“We are obviously concerned about parties like these, particularly when they involve people under 18 years old. We are worried that illegal substances may be being used,” Mosvold said.

READ ALSO: Airbnb renter does '€10,000 worth of damage’ to tiny Paris flat

Local authorities in France get power to crack down on Airbnb rentals

This illustration picture taken on July 24, 2019 in Paris shows the logo of the US online booking homes application Airbnb on the screen of a tablet. (Photo by Martin BUREAU / AFP)

The news was welcomed by authorities in Paris, who have long battled to keep a check on Airbnb and its impact on the rental market.

On Sunday, the French government published a decree that allows the City of Paris to subject the renting of local businesses to prior authorisation.

This decree applies to all types of offices, stores or medical offices who may be turned in holiday rentals.

It aims to allow towns to limit the growth of rentals on Airbnb, “protect the urban environment and preserve the balance between employment, housing, businesses and services on their territory,” says the decree.

The news was welcomed by authorities in Paris, which has been witnessing “the multiplication of ground floor business premises being transformed into holiday rentals,” said deputy mayor Ian Brossat, who is in charge of housing, in a press release.

This decree which comes into effect on July 1st, “will prevent local businesses from being turned into holiday rentals,” Brossat added on Twitter.

The conditions businesses will have to meet in order to get an authorisation still have to be defined said Brossat, according to Le Figaro. But Paris aims to draft these regulations and get them voted by the end of 2021, so they can come into force at the beginning of 2022.

Other towns allowed to apply the decree are those who have put into effect “the procedure of a registration number for furnished holiday apartments, owners and, subject to contractual stipulations, tenants of local businesses who wish to rent them as furnished holiday apartments.”

In recent years, Paris city authorities have made tax registration obligatory for apartment owners and have restricted those renting out their primary residence to a maximum of 120 days a year.

Now if owners want to rent a furnished property for less than a year to holidaymakers, they must apply to local authorities for permission to change the registered use of the space.

They are then required to buy a commercial property of an equivalent or bigger size and convert it into housing as compensation.

Until then, these onerous and time-consuming tasks did not apply to local businesses who only had to fill out a declaration.

In February, France’s highest court, the Court of Cassation, ruled that regulations introduced to counter the effects of Airbnb and other short-term rental sites on the local property market were “proportionate” and in line with European law.

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