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This is going to be a bit long and I'm sorry ahead of time but I'm extremely pissed off about this whole ordeal and am looking for guidance from anyone that may be able to help. Any and all suggestions are welcome. My fiancee and 4 of her friends + my sister just got back from Southern California for her bachelorette party. The maid of honor rented an AirBnb entire home (not shared- this is important) and paid for the property in advance. They notified the land lord that this was a bachelorette party and they liked the house because there was enough space for each girl to have their own bed. 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms were on the listing. The day before the trip (the trip began 10/03/19 and the reservation ended 10/6/19) they hadn't heard anything from the landlord, so the MoH reached out to find out how to get the key. The landlord responded that they wouldn't be able to stay in the agreed upon property because there was 'emergency electrical work' being performed, but he told them that he would be moving them into a larger, better property that he had. The property was not larger, nor better. It sounds like square footage-wise it may have been, but they went from 4 bedrooms to 3, and king beds (1 of which was going to be shared) to queens. Additionally, the house was completely unfurnished in terms of cups/silverware/etc. This is all small potatoes, though, so far. The girls arrived on staggered days, my fiancee and 2 friends on the Thursday, and my sister and the 2 others late Friday. My sister arrived by herself late Friday night and the girls left her the key in the mailbox. They were at Disneyland, part of the trip. While in the house she heard someone in the backyard. The person then tried to enter through a rear sliding glass door, multiple times, as if trying to break in. My sister called my fiancee and asked if the other girls were going to be arriving later and entering through the back and she was told that no, they would not be. My sister then called the police and ran into one of the bedrooms to hide. The police arrived and the man-in-question was identified as a "friend" of the landlord who apparently stays on the back of this property. The second land lord (who is brother in law of the initial point of contact) showed up later as the police were there. The rest of the girls then returned from Disneyland to the fracas and everyone (including the police) noticed that the man that was attempting to enter the property was belligerent, talked back to the officers, and appeared to be either intoxicated and/or on drugs, something that I'm not sure made it into the police report, but I won't know that until I get a copy of it. When questioned as to why he was even on the property to begin with, the man that was attempting to enter said that he "stays in the back unit". When questioned as to why he was attempting to enter the front unit, through the sliding glass door, he initially denied these claims, but when pressed by my sister who said "I saw you trying to enter are you kidding me?" he said "I was trying to go in to turn the light off." My sister has been diagnosed with anxiety resulting from multiple close calls in her life between car accidents and an attempted sabotage of her sorority house in which the perpetrator was arrested and sent to prison for breaking their gas main and attempting to burn their house down. Yes, you can't make this poo poo up. Needless to say, the event was massively traumatic for her. The landlord, multiple times, tried to tell her (in front of the police) that he understood her situation; her response, brilliant in its succinctness, was "No, you don't. You're not a woman, in a place you don't know, by yourself, with a man that shouldn't be here looking like he's trying to break in. We rented the whole house, not a room." The police ordered the friend away from the house for the duration of the trip, warning them that if they set foot again on the property without notifying that they would be arrested for trespassing. Additionally, and this is a big kicker, there is a doorway attached to the living room that leads to (presumably) another room attached to the house that the girls did not have access to. Nor were they EVER made aware of. Here's a pic below:  Furthermore, the landlord attempted to state (after the police intervention) that they didn't have access to the "back unit" or "backyard" of this property, so it was all basically irrelevant, according to him, since this was something he claimed was stated in the ad. That's fine, if that was true for the original property. But it's not. The original ad clearly states it's for an entire house. Not part of a house, or that there's some "mystery room" attached.  Here's the ONLY place (in the original ad) where it says it's a "Front Unit" (but doesn't note anything about shared walls, shared rooms, etc.) Or that other people will be there.  His claims about the unit that they were moved into being an "upgrade" are bogus- they clearly went from 4br/3ba to 3br/2ba. And furthermore, anything he says about the second unit is essentially irrelevant because the contract was for the FIRST place, where this all shouldn't have been an issue, until he moved them at literally the last second, without them getting a chance to see photos (as they had asked for in text messages). It's all a huge mess, and as the fiancee of the bachelorette, and the brother of the sister in law, obviously I'm extremely angry and want to punish these people as much as possible. A full refund from AirBnb seems to be the absolute minimum here. My sister has something from the cops that she's going to forward to me as I help them put this together. I was doing some research on small claims emotional damages in California and it seems like that might be an avenue as well. My sister has been through too much bullshit in her life to have had to deal with more crap like this, and my fiancee absolutely had her weekend crushed by these shady rear end lunatics. I also have screen shots of all text interactions between the MoH and the main landlord, including the most recent in which he asks her if there's a way they can solve this off the record with some sort of "monetary compensation". The same guy pulled my sister and the MoH aside at the scene to discuss ways they could keep this off of AirBNB's radar because "money is one thing but our reputation is super important". Any and all suggestions are welcome and appreciated.
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Oct 7, 2019 01:52
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nm posted:The "mystery room" is likely an owners closet with stuff like cleaning supplies and what not. That's a fair point and something I was considering but it's just so shady how it all went down, how they move a group of 6 women to an unregistered property on AirBNB with no pictures or no information literally the day before, and there just happens to be a guy creeping outside trying to get into the main unit late at night. Also the original ad states "Entire house" for what it's worth. Maybe I should have been clearer in the OP but it sounds like the hidden doorway is where the guy was saying he was going to sleep, entering through an addition in the back yard. Or who the gently caress knows? Maybe he was trying to enter through the house thinking no one was there. So it literally shares the same wall with the living room that they're staying in. This wasn't confirmed for sure, but they said that the view out of the sliding door shows that the back has had recent work done, including walls that lineup around the hidden doorway as seen here:  e: According to my sister (without going through the backyard since the contract said they couldn't, but looking over the fences) he was either sleeping in that shed (possible) or in the addition (a lot more probable). TheKevman fucked around with this message at 02:17 on Oct 7, 2019 |
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Oct 7, 2019 02:09
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blarzgh posted:Ok, so who's gonna be a real buzzkill and tell her honestly that if they get their money back that's the best they can hope for and they should be happy with it? If that's honestly what it seems like most likely outcome/best outcome is then so be it. I just wanted to try and get a feel for something that I don't know a whole lot about. There's just so much crap at play here that's super scummy/sleazy/gross.
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Oct 7, 2019 08:04
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Nice piece of fish posted:Yeah, thing is... I like to tell my usual case type client that they actually have two problems: a legal problem and an rear end in a top hat problem. The legal problem is the one you can use the legal system to remedy. Being an rear end in a top hat is not illegal. Conflating the two problems is both expensive and stupid. Thanks
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Oct 7, 2019 11:02
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More info from the situation (if it matters, and based on the responses I see what you guys are saying from a small claims standpoint and it makes sense- my sister lives in Denver and flew out for this and the house was in Los Angeles. We live in the Bay Area, so I'm assuming we'd have to file in HIS county, not ours,or at least provide a compelling reason (from what I can discern online) as to why it makes sense to do it here). The guy in question is friends with the owner apparently. He lives in that back addition with the hidden door full time. This was discussed during the questioning by the police and I didn't get the full details of the convo from my sister until I talked to her late last night. I got most of the info from my fiancee who arrived after the cops had already been there for a little while. Last night (after I posted my OP) the landlord sent this text to the MoH:  I'm not going to be making the final call on this situation obviously, I just told them I'd try to get a grip on what their options are (read: outsource it to smarter people that know more about this i.e. all of you) and try to present them with the best course of action. I tend to be the de facto 'writer of letters' since I've had success contacting Comcast/Dish Network/DirecTV/AT&T etc when there have been issues for all families and friends and gotten pretty good results with a small amount of time invested. Being a former english major isn't the worst thing- it's amazing what a semi-coherent, semi-literate message sent to the right people can accomplish. It seems that's the best course of action, to AirBNB specifically. I was just in total protective brother/fiancee mode after considering that A) the guy in the hidden room likely went into the house when the women weren't there and who the gently caress knows what he did (the first night, Thursday, there were lights on in rooms that they swore they left off before going to dinner- something they chalked up to nothing at first then thought about again after the incident) and B) may or may not have had cameras in the house because the girls were moved to a new place off the radar at the very last second after being told there would be 6 girls there. With regards to the text sent from the landlord, I told the MoH not to respond. I don't know but I'm assuming that if she asks for money as a form of 'compensation' directly through him (as opposed to routing it through AirBNB) he'd then be able to turn around to AirBNB and claim that she was extorting him by threatening to leave a negative review if he didn't pay her off. Also, none of the girls (my sister included) want his money. They just want to try and punish him legally if possible, but at a minimum through AirBNB. If there were damages awarded legally, cool. But they all were in agreement that they didn't want hush money for the sake of not leaving a negative review. TheKevman fucked around with this message at 06:16 on Oct 8, 2019 |
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Oct 8, 2019 06:13
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RICKON WALNUTSBANE posted:What would the ideal resolution of this situation look like to you/them? He wouldn't be able to be an AirBNB host ever again? I'm not sure how it works with AirBNB but I think they'd like to be able to have him suspended if possible, similar to an Uber driver situation. Or some sort of AirBNB review.
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Oct 8, 2019 09:02
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Lobsterpillar posted:Do you want to chase up every place he could list his properties? No, just the one that matters the most.
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Oct 8, 2019 09:31
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blarzgh posted:Nobody likes to laugh at the Cheeto as much as I do, but I don't think he's wrong about the way they use the word "Hoax" there. It's really unfortunate that they did that because they didn't need to. The rest of the ad was fire but that moment really kneecaps it pretty good. There's no need to exaggerate or TRY to make him look worse than he already has, especially when you give him and his zealots a legitimate SEE? SEE? Fake news! gripe 
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Mar 29, 2020 12:41
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I've been posting in the Pregnancy Megathread about my wife and I, and I'd love if anyone has any FMLA information/pregnancy discrimination experience. We're starting a conversation with a lawyer (began the process last week) but if anyone can opine/has experience, we'd appreciate it, since we're basically on an island here. This might be too advanced/complicated to post here, but here goes. Backstory: My wife's company was acquired by a company based out of another state. She is/was a rockstar employee (#2 in charge behind the CEO in her 30 odd person clinic) and the acquiring company made a number of 'big promises/future plans' when they acquired in late Sept 2022. We have some of these plans in writing, including her slotting in in a Regional Director role. My wife disclosed to her new direct supervisor in early January that she was pregnant and asked for confidentiality based on the fact that she didn't want any of her coworkers to know. 3 weeks after the disclosure, her new management began stripping responsibilities. This culminated with a visit in mid March from the new owner who, in their 1 on 1 (before my wife disclosed to him that she was pregnant- at that point 26 weeks and still completely hiding it with sweaters/baggy clothing) asked her point blank "What are your plans after your pregnancy? Are you planning on returning to work here? Word around the office is you aren't planning on coming back." Of course, my wife was completely caught off guard since she is planning on returning, she has never said anything to the contrary to anyone, and she immediately stated that she fully intended on returning after her FMLA. 3 days later, she received a new job description (with a massive reduction in responsibilities) and was told she would be receiving a new, lower title (although they haven't adjusted her pay, yet). With her due date approaching in mid June, on 4/21 she stated her intent to take FMLA/PFML effective 6/15 (6/19 due date). She wanted to go above and beyond the 30 day requirement. We live in Washington State (thankfully) where the Washington PFML laws provide 4 weeks for pregnancy medical recovery as well as 12 weeks of bonding time for a total of 16 paid weeks. Additionally, a C-section or bed rest mandate can add 2 weeks to the paid leave, for a total of 18 weeks. She stated this in her notification letter, that she planned on taking 16 total weeks (4 medical, 12 bonding). She received a response from the 3rd party HR that reads thusly: HR Company posted:[HR Company] has received your request for a leave of absence. Although you are not eligible for Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) due to working at a location that does not have at least 50 employees or more within a 75-mile radius, you may be eligible for leave under Washington Paid Family and Medical Leave (WA PFML). WA PFML will provide up to 12 weeks of leave. WA PFML may be taken intermittently or continuously. They then called her and she missed their call but in their voicemail they informed her that her dates were calculated wrong and she needed to adjust them to match 12 weeks of leave. It just sucks for my wife because she's absolutely convinced (based on their actions) that they're walking her off a cliff here and they're going to dump her the moment she starts her PFML, benefit-less. I'm certain they'll come up with some horseshit "her position was causing us undue financial damage" bullshit, but yea. I know for a fact that they're wrong about Washington PFML, I'm just trying to line up any other things that I can to see where we can take it. I've been doing extensive reading about 'integrated companies' (which voids the 50 employee minimum threshold for FMLA protection) of which her current company most definitely seems to be as it meets all 4 of the stipulations to be defined as such: (i) Common management; (yes) (ii) Interrelation between operations; (yes) (iii) Centralized control of labor relations; and (yes) (iv) Degree of common ownership/financial control. (yes) They have 500 employees total across the country- the only kicker here is that they only have 37 within a 75 mile radius of her office. However, I keep seeing that there may be exceptions to the 50/75 mile radius rule. For example, no mention of 75 miles is made in Washington revised law (https://codes.findlaw.com/wa/title-50a-family-and-medical-leave/wa-rev-code-50a-35-010.html) I'm not really sure what I'm looking for here, just basically...a direction or if anyone else has gone through anything remotely close. It feels like the 75 mile radius thing is gonna be hard to overcome, but I do see articles in which it's seemingly ignored, provided the company has at least 50 employees (which we believe they would, according to that integration test). Any thoughts or suggestions would certainly help and be appreciated.
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May 1, 2023 08:18
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