LOS ANGELES (NewsNation) — A woman who has taken over a Los Angeles Airbnb for more than 500 days without paying may have a legal argument in her favor, according to an attorney who spoke with NewsNation.
Sascha Jovanovic initially rented the guesthouse to Elizabeth Hirschhorn for a six-month stay, for which she paid more than $20,000, but when the reservation ended in March 2022, she wouldn’t leave.
“Evidently, the landlord didn’t have a certificate of occupancy and hadn’t permitted the shower (so he) wasn’t legally able to rent the place to begin with. So the tenant is arguing that the rent is actually zero,” said attorney and legal analyst Dina Doll.
Jovanovic said when he entered the unit, he noticed mold and water damage that wasn’t there before Hirschhorn’s stay began. He said he offered to put her up in a hotel or stay in his home while he repaired the damage, but she refused.
Hirschhorn, meanwhile, said the unit wasn’t approved for occupancy and had an unpermitted shower. She contacted authorities and claimed she was not required to pay rent because of those issues and couldn’t be evicted.
Jovanovic says Hirschhorn refused to let him in to make the repairs needed to bring the unit into compliance.
But it gets even more complicated.
“The interesting thing about this is that the landlord and tenant initially had their agreement on Airbnb. But then the landlord extended the lease outside of the Airbnb platform,” said Doll. “And then she (Hirschhorn) ended up becoming a long-term tenant. She was there past six months. And then that lease ended up falling into the kind of rent stabilization ordinates in Los Angeles.”
Under Los Angeles’ “Just Cause” law, staying in the unit for six months means Hirschhorn can’t be evicted without legal cause unless Jovanovic pays for her relocation. Because Jovanovic extended her contract outside of the Airbnb platform, the company won’t intervene in the dispute.
Both parties have filed lawsuits against each other, with Hirschhorn asking for $100,000 to settle the case. In the meantime, Hirschhorn remains in the guest house, separated from Jovanovic and his family by a shared deck.
NewsNation’s Steph Whiteside contributed to this report.