An aerial view of Oakland, California.
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A woman living in an Airbnb rent-free for 542 days has been in a similar legal battle before.Elizabeth Hirschhorn was kicked out of a rental two months before moving into the latest property.A lawsuit seen by DailyMail.com shows she got into a dispute over cleaning the $2.6 million home.
An unwanted occupant who has been in a protracted legal battle with a Los Angeles Airbnb host, and has been living in his guesthouse rent-free for more than 542 days, was involved in a similar legal dispute just months before moving in, according to DailyMail.com.
Elizabeth Hirschhorn was kicked out of a $2.6 million rental in Oakland, California, in July 2021, DailyMail.com reported.
The media outlet said that Hirschhorn subleased the property, owned by landlords Brian and Gordon Bishop, from Alex Lewin in September 2019.
According to legal documents reviewed by DailyMail.com, a harmful substance was found in the property. Hirschhorn asked Lewin, the primary tenant, to have it professionally cleaned, DailyMail.com reported.
She made requests for Lewin to clean the property in a very specific way due to her “hypersensitivity to allergens,” the complaint said, per DailyMail.com.
According to a complaint, Brian Bishop said Hirschhorn also made “unreasonable requests” of Lewin to replace all her personal items that were allegedly damaged by the unknown substance.
Hirschhorn temporarily moved out of the property, staying in hotels to avoid exposure to the unknown substance, but returned in February 2020, according to the legal documents seen by DailyMail.com.
Lewin then moved out of the home in March due to Hirschhorn’s “hostile” behavior, with Hirschhorn continuing to live there after he left despite having no tenancy agreement with the landlords and not paying any rent, DailyMail.com reported.
In a countersuit against the landlords for negligence and intentional tort, Hirschhorn claimed the Bishops’ actions had been damaging to her health, per DailyMail.com.
She claimed to have been pressured to vacate the property during the COVID-19 pandemic, while a Shelter-in-Place order was in place in California.
The case was eventually settled on July 20, 2021, just over a month before she moved into Sascha Jovanovic’s Airbnb, according to DailyMail.com.
Hirschhorn paid rent for six months, starting in September 2021, but eventually got into a dispute with Jovanovic about repairs to the property.
She refused to leave, citing high risks of COVID-19 complications and also citing pandemic regulations at the time, per DailyMail.com.
Hirschhorn’s scheduled stay ended on March 19, 2020, but the pair agreed to extend it until mid-April.
But on April 12, she stopped paying rent and hasn’t paid since, with a lawsuit arguing that it wasn’t a legal rental and that Jovanovic therefore has no right to evict her, per the Los Angeles Times.
Jovanovic started renting out his guesthouse without having a certificate of occupancy or a permit to build a shower and, as such, according to California law, it was not a legal rental, the Daily Mail previously reported.
A judge has ruled that Jovanovic has no legal right to evict the woman, per the Times.
Like in the Oakland case, Jovanovic said he feels unsafe going into his home because a “hostile person is living there,” the outlet reported.
His lawyer, Sebastian Rucci, told the Times that Hirschhorn was “the tenant from hell.”
Hirschhorn’s attorney, Colin Walshok, did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.