Woman forced to pay 'nightmare' Airbnb renters to leave her house

A US woman who rented her master bedroom out to Airbnb tenants said she was forced to pay them £1,000 to leave after the deal went sour.

Poonam Sandhu, 33, started renting the bedroom of her California home to a couple through Airbnb on 1 April.

She said the couple paid for two weeks, but on the third week they told her they were waiting for a cheque to clear and asked to pay in cash on a day to day basis.

According to ABC News, Sandhu agreed, saying that, at that point, things were fine and she "had no reason not to trust them".

However, not long after the couple started fighting all the time, using her possessions, and "sprawling themselves all over the place".

Their payments became less and less frequent, until eventually they completely stopped around May time.

Sandhu said she asked the couple to leave, but they refused. And she was no longer under Airbnb insurance protection because she had agreed to take cash payments.

Police even came to her home to break up one of their fights, but she could not get rid of them.

She finally decided to offer them $1700 (approx £1,000) to leave, and they accepted. It emerged the couple already has an ongoing claim against them for not paying rent elsewhere.

California lawyer Leo B Siegel said tenants are given a lot of protection under state law.

Speaking to ABC News, he said: "Once someone's been inside your house for more than 30 days, they're entitled to 30 days' notice before you can even file the lawsuit."

Poonam said: "It was the worst thing I've ever experienced. Nightmare."

According to the Standard, Airbnb said in a statement: "We strongly encourage hosts to only book through Airbnb."

The company also said that it was working on changes to its policies to financially penalise anyone who overstays an Airbnb reservation.