A lady who rented a house in the Barceloneta neighborhood to a young man named Timur, who is said to be in the financial world, for 950 euros per month and expressly forbidding tourists to re-rent it in the contract. A month later they realized that their apartment was rented on Airbnb for 200 euros per night; that is, with the possibility of obtaining almost 8,000 euros per month.

When the tenant realized what was happening, he tried to contact the false tenant but it was in vain. That's why he rented the house last week for a recovery night, changed the lock, and he's been there ever since.

This report, published by La Vanguardia, is being followed by the discovery of numerous houses rented by the Timur. The following practices related to unlicensed tourist apartments are expressly prohibited by law.

This type of apartment violates the law of tourist apartments of the Barcelona City Council, but it is usually difficult to prove it. The City Council can impose fines of up to 30,000-600,000 euros for these matters, but the reality is that so far it has not done just one. The Government imposed a fine of 30,000 euros on the Airbnb platform in 2014, but it appealed and the Supreme Court of Catalonia ruled that it was right. The City Council also fined Airbnb 600,000 euros at the end of 2016, but they are still awaiting a response to the appeal.

The neighborhood movements in Barcelona have repeatedly denounced that platforms such as Airbnb facilitate the business of illegal tourist apartments. In fact, in these platforms there are more networks and owners looking for a business without paying fees than neighbors who want to “meet people and get some money to get to the end of the month.”