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Post by Inanna (Shaun) on Jul 23, 2016 23:15:44 GMT
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Post by High Priestess on Jul 24, 2016 14:27:58 GMT
THat does get my blood boiling!!
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Post by Inanna (Shaun) on Jul 24, 2016 16:15:48 GMT
Yes, it is the main reason for us leaving Chicago. Well, the cold winters also, but the timing was 100% this. It is very important to note that the ordinance is literally unreadable. In my other job, I am a Business English consultant, so I am well used to doing things like, for example, taking someone's resume and rewriting it because they are a Japanese finance person who speaks only passable English. Even though I don't know much about finance or Japanese. So, I have the ability to make sense out of the incomprehensible. I Could Not Understand This Law. There were places in it where, in the middle of a particularly important passage, as requirement, there would be a row of symbols, ]+}*#^+]*{^#*+^ instead of words, right where the requirement should be.
I don't know if they have cleaned up the document since then. But if not, then it was a clever but crappy trick.
This week selling all our stuff. Things are crazy busy, but coming here and reading about what everyone is doing is very centering, a nice little break of sanity.
Thanks everyone.
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Post by helgaparis on Jul 24, 2016 18:31:18 GMT
Shaun, I'm feeling with you, I sold / moved most of my stuff over the last weeks. The rest will follow on 2 or 3 August.
Typically, now I have a request for August. Not on Airbnb, where I deleted the listing, but from my bistro.
It's strange to get rid of most things, mostly I felt better.
)Sète was the main apartment whit most of the things we brought from Austria in 2000)
Funny thing, I gave up the apartment when I thought I would loose housing aid. Now, I maybe can get it for a while and the owner wants me to keep the studio even for only the housing aid, not the full price. Too lazy to find a new tenant and no money to make the investments he is legally obliged to make.
Obviously, they had to tell me that after I sold the fridge, which is a necessity in the South.
Thinking about buying a new fridge, I tried to find out how long I would get housing aid and how much. The people writing your law in Chicago have learned from French fonctionnaries. It's impossible to find out how much and how long I'm entitled to. One thing is sure: if one clerk sends it to the owner and another finds out in 3 months time that it was not due, I'll have to pay it back.
A bit the same concept: you do something in bona fide, believing you have the right, and when circonstances out of your control or even only their interpretation of the situation change, you have been wrong all along.
I can understand that you pull out your roots and go now. It feels like that for me too.
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Post by Inanna (Shaun) on Jul 25, 2016 7:41:28 GMT
Helga, That sounds really stressful not to be able to get basic answers on the housing aid. It sounds like the powers that be like to keep the answers close to the chest so they can act willy nilly. It is power. Chicago has the highest taxes in the country. They will be charging Airbnb guests 21% tax on rooms, and Airbnb took it out of the hosts fees with their new pricing mechanism.
it seems we have some things in common, petty bureacrats, closing down, and today, when I opened the refrigerator, the door came off its hinges! So no fridge.
Im not at the stage of getting rid of things where it feels mostly good yet. There is too much stuff. But it will feel good to only have a suitcase for awhile. There is something that feels so clean and zen about living in a suitcase.
my partner is already in mourning that the guests are gone. He is planning another listing. I only like the nice ones.
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Post by Inanna (Shaun) on Jul 25, 2016 7:44:57 GMT
www.illinoispolicy.org/chicago-city-council-enacts-airbnb-regulations/21% tax to use Airbnb in Chicago. I had a guest who stayed for one night for 49 plus 13 cleaning. He thought he had rented teo nights because his total cost was in the 80 something. (He was older and just remembered the "40" part and doubled it, but really, that shouldnt be a makeable mistake.
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Post by High Priestess on Jul 25, 2016 14:00:26 GMT
21% tax!!!?? This is horrible. I have never heard of such a high tax. It's despicable really. It's theft of people's income. You can bet that guests booking a return stay with the same host will not be using Airbnb. They will ask to book direct, and many hosts will not bother to collect the tax for those booking direct with them.
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Post by Inanna (Shaun) on Jul 26, 2016 13:46:09 GMT
In addition, Deborah, in my Chicago host group, I learned that according to the new law, once you register, you become "public accomodation" and lose the right to selectively accept guests or "refer" them to another place thst is a better fit for everyone. I cant attest to the veracity of this, as once I realized the gargantuan document was basically unreadable I stopped trying since we are mvoing, but the group is very active and working with an attorney, having meetings to help hosts understand and organize, so this is a solid space from which I got the info.
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Post by High Priestess on Jul 26, 2016 14:06:29 GMT
Losing the right to decline guests?!?! That's even worse than the hotel tax! I have never ever heard of any other city doing that, and it seems illegal to me. Because federal law seems clear to me that private homes aren't public accomodations: www.ada.gov/regs2010/titleIII_2010/titleIII_2010_regulations.htm#a102This part of federal law clarifies that even when used for short term rentals, private homes where there are 5 or fewer rooms rented out and where the host themselves lives, are NOT public accomodations!! So send that to the CHicago lawmakers and tell them to stuff it! I think hosts do need to get an attorney and sue the city. |
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Post by helgaparis on Jul 27, 2016 16:39:38 GMT
21 % of tax sound crazy, more so if you can't decline people.
If anything happens, a robbery or an aggression, the host should sue the council for making that law. Public liability.
Shaun, if your fridge still works, you can fix the door by adding hinges. We did that with a fridge and woth a dishwasher. Just normal thin metal hinges like for furniture. In both cases they held all the lifetime of the machine.
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Post by High Priestess on Jul 27, 2016 16:52:28 GMT
Yes....realize that Airbnb service fee is 10-12% or so...then comes city tax of 21%....and pretty soon the cost of staying at the host's home is a good 33% higher than one reads on the listing advertisement.
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