{"id":10599,"date":"2026-07-15T21:00:32","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T18:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/major-reversal-shocking-court-decision-on-airbnbs\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T21:00:32","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T18:00:32","slug":"major-reversal-shocking-court-decision-on-airbnbs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/major-reversal-shocking-court-decision-on-airbnbs\/","title":{"rendered":"Major Reversal! Shocking Court Decision on Airbnbs"},"content":{"rendered":"

A shocking court ruling has decided the battle between owners seeking to exploit their properties through short-term rentals and tenants who want to protect their daily lives. The new decision puts the brakes on this practice when the apartment building’s bylaws do not permit it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Athens Single-Member Misdemeanors Court accepted the request for interim measures from an apartment building administrator and prohibited the short-term rental of an apartment when the bylaws stipulate exclusive residential use.<\/strong> The decision (MPA 2937\/2026) is based on the fact that apartment building bylaws have the force of law in relations between co-owners and bind them all.<\/p>\n

In this case, the administrator complained that a company was exploiting the apartment in violation of the bylaws. During the summer of 2025, it listed it on an internet platform and was using it as tourist accommodation with the short-term rental system. Customers were causing daily disturbances, both inside the apartment and in the common areas, even during quiet hours. Additionally, there was overuse of common areas, damage, and security issues from the indiscriminate entry of third parties.<\/p>\n

The court examined the reasoning and noted that, although the bylaws do not explicitly mention short-term rentals\u2014because they did not exist when they were drafted\u2014the gap must be filled based on good faith and fair dealing practices. The intention of the contracting parties, as evident from the entirety of the bylaws and especially from the prohibition of use as a hotel or for services that attract large numbers of visitors and noise, was to exclude such rentals as well.<\/p>\n

Thus, the court ordered the company to immediately stop the commercial use of the apartment with short-term rentals and not to repeat it in the future. A financial penalty is provided for in case of violation.<\/p>\n

Regulation with new law for apartment buildings<\/h2>\n

The decision comes at a time when the issue of “apartment-hotels” is intensely concerning Greek society. At the same time, the Ministry of Justice is proceeding with a comprehensive overhaul of the legal framework for apartment buildings, which dates back to 1929.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Legislative Preparation Committee is expected to begin its work in July, with the goal of having the new legislation ready for voting during 2026, as Eleftheros Typos<\/em> reports.<\/p>\n

The new law will comprehensively regulate neighbor relations, so that they do not resort to courts so frequently.<\/strong> Among other things, it will reduce the required majority for decisions to 51% from the absolute majority that applies today and will introduce provisions for outstanding common expenses.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In addition, it will simplify the complex provisions for agricultural plots and building plots, facilitating sales and purchases and allowing the subdivision of plots.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This particular court decision shows that apartment building bylaws remain a powerful tool for protecting normal living conditions, even when they do not explicitly provide for new forms of property exploitation.<\/p>\n

An Athens court banned short-term rentals in an apartment building where bylaws mandate residential use, ruling that such rentals violate co-owner agreements despite not being explicitly mentioned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":10598,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[9287,158,9289,100,9291,9288,9290],"nfg_topic":[134],"class_list":["post-10599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-airbnb","tag-athens","tag-court-ruling","tag-greece","tag-property-bylaws","tag-short-term-rentals","tag-tenant-rights","nfg_topic-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10599"},{"taxonomy":"nfg_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nfg_topic?post=10599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}