Even though property laws are one of the most ancient concepts out there, some folks to this day might struggle to understand physical boundaries. At times this is a simple misunderstanding of property lines, but sometimes the root cause is that age-old dragon, entitlement.
A netizen turned to the internet to ask if they were wrong to add in some privacy features for their own home that “blocked” the view of it from a nearby Airbnb. As it turns out, the netizen’s home was a historic building and the Airbnb owners advertised a view of it as a perk of the property.
Seeing a beautiful old building from your window is a pretty big plus
Image credits: Fabian Wiktor (not the actual photo)
So one netizen wondered if they shouldn't have put up some barriers to prevent their historic home being part of the view from a nearby Airbnb
Image credits: u/Few_Orchid1376
Desiring more privacy, the new owners decided to separate their mansion from the cottage with a hedge
Image credits: Philippe Leone (not the actual photo)
Image credits: u/Few_Orchid1376
The owner of the cottage soon discovered the hedge and was absolutely livid over it
Image credits: Abbilyn Rurenko (not the actual photo)
Image credits: u/Few_Orchid1376
It turned out he wanted to make the cottage an Airbnb home with "a perfect view to the historical building," so he just demanded the author cut down the hedge
The netizen and their spouse recently bought an old historical house somewhere in the Scottish countryside. Its previous owners, an elderly couple, used the building as a small hotel, but their age no longer allowed them to engage in this business. In turn, the author of the post and their partner planned to simply live in this house, enjoying all the delights of life in the middle of nowhere... what could go wrong?
As it turns out, literally everything. Wanting to preserve the privacy of their new estate, the couple decided to grow a hedge along the very border of their site, separating it from a small ‘gardener’s cottage,’ which remained in the property of the previous owners' distant relative. A hedge is a thing that grows very quickly, and soon the neighbor discovered it. And that's where it all started...
It turned out that the same relative was set to rent out his cottage on Airbnb, and one of the key advantages of the location is the "beautiful view of the old historic mansion" that opens from the windows of the cottage. And now, as you can imagine, this unique feature has fizzled out! And our hapless host started to act.
The couple were inundated with what they themselves describe as "official-looking letters" in which both the owner of the cottage and the former owners of the mansion demand the immediate removal of the hedge, because by doing so they deprive the neighbor of "their reasonable enjoyment of the property", limiting "views of a historical landmark." The fact that "the historical landmark" itself is private property now didn't seem to bother anyone.
Image credits: Rob Wingate (not the actual photo)
By the way, this is the second post from the same author, dedicated to this particular situation. In the first, the original poster questioned how legitimate such a demand from their neighbor was, given that the fence grows strictly on the land that belongs to them and their spouse. Having received a lot of answers that the neighbor here has absolutely no right to demand anything (moreover, such letters can be interpreted as harassment), the OP decided to make sure of the moral aspect of the problem.
Well, everything falls into place if you remember that back in 2021, Airbnb introduced a new category of Historical Homes in the UK and a number of Western European countries. “The introduction of the Historical Homes Category is a strong driver of travel to heritage homes and it’s a powerful way to encourage people to travel to places they wouldn’t normally visit. We’re delighted to collaborate with Airbnb and welcome this growing appreciation for heritage buildings we’re witnessing across the continent,” Airbnb’s official website quotes Alfonso Pallavicini, the president of the European Holiday Home Association (EHHA).
Moreover, according to Airbnb data, as early as 2021, typical host earnings for hosts listing Historical Homes in the UK were £10K (~$12.6K), compared to nearly £6K ($7.5K) for the regular hosts. An increase of almost twice literally out of the blue is a good bonus for the owner, isn't it? And, most likely, that very "gardener's cottage" also refers to Historical Homes - but if it's separated from the main building by a hedge, then you can lose the premium category...
Damn it, now I feel just like the characters in the Scooby-Doo cartoon, exposing another mystical story and discovering that there was a common scam underneath. And actually some people write about the same in the comments to the original post. "The owners have solely based their business model on someone else's property being constantly available to them, without any consultation with the actual owners of the property. That was always going to fail as you can't control what happens outside of your property," one commenter reasonably pointed out.
In any case, people in the comments almost unanimously sided with the new owners of the historic home. "Nip this in the bud, get a lawyer and have them send a official letter to them to not harass you," was one of the nearly perfect pieces of advice given by the commenters. And what do you, our dear readers, think about the behavior of all participants of this case? Please let us know your own opinion in the comments below.
Commenters unanimously supported the new owners of the mansion, claiming that building up your business model on someone else's property almost always fails
