Dispute over Victoria Airbnb duplex takes ‘dark turn’
Global News
By Jon Azpiri and Neetu Garcha
16 August 2017
A dispute between duplex owners in Victoria has gotten heated.
Melanie Wood and her husband are frustrated that their neighbour is using their half of the duplex as an Airbnb.
Wood says bylaws restricting short-term rentals are not being enforced.
“This has been going on for too many months and nobody was doing the job they’re supposed to do,” she said.
Wood says in June, the duplex next to hers was sold and unexpectedly
turned into an Airbnb, forcing her to deal with a revolving door of
loud neighbours.
“With neither of the owners being on the property, there was nobody but
us to say, ‘Please don’t park there’… and we tried to be nice.”
Feeling frustrated, Wood made her story public. That didn’t sit well
with a man claiming to be the co-owner of the neighbouring Airbnb, who
called her.
“I’ll do whatever I want to do with my house,” he said during the phone call Wood said took place Saturday morning.
“Now it’s easy to bully [the owner] down there, but it’s not f—ing easy to bully me,” he said.
The man told Wood he owns several properties with a woman he called his business partner.
The man later admitted to Global News that was a lie.
“I said what I said to Melanie and her husband because I wanted the
bullying to stop,” he said. “At the end of the day I just want to make
sure that my friend and colleague is not being bullied out of a place
that she rightfully purchased.”
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