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A real estate investor was who was fined $180,000 by the City of Las Vegas for having an unauthorized Airbnb at his property is blaming his tenant for running afoul of local laws and berating the local authorities for not informing him of this problem earlier.

Business Insider reports that Xin Tao, an Oregon-based engineer, purchased the five-bedroom, two-bathroom house in June 2021 for $378,000, to be used as a rental property. A tenant who signed a long-term lease in September 2021 soon began to illegally lease it as an Airbnb site.

Tao added the city was aware of the unauthorized Airbnb usage as early as October 2021 but did not inform him of the situation until February 2022 when he was charged $2,132 in fines. He was under the belief that the tenant ceased renting out the property after that incident, but when the tenant moved out last September Tao learned the city pasted a notice of the $180,000 fine on a window at the residence.

Last January, Tao unsuccessfully asked the Las Vegas City Council to void the fine. He insisted he would continue to fight the penalty.

“We have a mortgage and car payments — $180,000 is definitely something I cannot afford,” he said.

 

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