Joseph Foresta, a Pennsylvania landlord, sued Airbnb in March 2023, alleging that an individual rented his home for a night through the company’s website and occupied the apartment as a squatter.
A year later, Foresta continues to fight Airbnb in court.
According to , in June 2020, guests paid for their stay through Airbnb, and the company collected the fees. court memorandum From January 29, 2024.
After his stay, he “refused to leave the apartment and changed the locks on the exterior door of the building to prevent Mr. Foresta from entering,” according to court documents.
Joseph Foresta, from Pennsylvania, sued Airbnb in March 2023, alleging that the squatters refused to leave his property for months and caused damage to his space. (Chesnot/Getty Images)
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Mr. Foresta attempted to enter the premises alone. The person “assaulted Mr. Foresta with a baseball bat, seriously injuring him, and threatened to kill him if he returned,” court documents state.
It took “many months” for the homeowner to finally gain access to his property. He found more than $75,000 in damages, documents said.
He was unable to regain access to the property until Sept. 9, 2020, when he obtained a court order from the sheriff to evict the squatters, according to Pennsylvania Records.
According to the court order, Foresta claims he made “numerous attempts” to contact Airbnb for help dealing with the situation, but Airbnb ignored him.
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Mr. Foresta’s attorney, Joyce Ullman, told Fox News Digital in a phone call that the big question in the case is “whether Pennsylvania has jurisdiction over the lawsuit against Airbnb.”
A Philadelphia man has been unable to regain access to his apartment for months after the squatters refused to leave. (Visions of America/Joseph Sohm/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
According to the court order, the court ruled that “Airbnb knowingly entered into contracts with Pennsylvania homeowners through its website and intentionally took advantage of its Pennsylvania operations by collecting service fees. “Personal jurisdiction over Andbee is appropriate.”
Ullman considers the fact that the court entered an opinion that the state has jurisdiction over Airbnb for litigation purposes to be a “huge victory.”
The court is He ordered that the case be submitted to arbitration.
According to the Cornell University Legal Information Institute, arbitration is “a method by which parties agree to have their cases heard by a qualified arbitrator outside of court.”
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“I was against it,” Ullman said. “The judge ruled in favor of Airbnb, so we need to proceed to arbitration first.”
According to the court order, the parties must “submit an arbitration status report by June 3, 2024.”
According to the court order, the matter will be arbitrated and a status report will be submitted by June 3, 2024. (Lorenzo Di Cola/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Ullman said Foresta has not worked on any other squatter issues since the lawsuit was first filed.
An Airbnb spokesperson told Fox News Digital in April 2023 that the company does not comment on pending litigation, but that Foresta was terminated in July 2020 “due to frequent violations of our community standards and policies.” He said he has since been banned from hosting on Airbnb.
