Bristol: Airbnb 'party house' to end current use

The couple built the house near neighbouring properties on Hobhouse Close

The owners of an Airbnb "party house" have promised to end its current use and halve the maximum number of occupants.

The row erupted after landlords Hassan and Maryam Khaleghi built a five-bed house on Hobhouse Close in Henleaze, Bristol, and rented it out via Airbnb.

They only had consent for either a two-bedroom family home or a house for no more than five tenants.

Neighbours said their lives had been "made a misery".

They also accused the pair of creating a "revolving door" of unwanted guests drinking, fighting, shouting and playing loud music late at night.

'Repeated failures'

The owners insisted at a meeting of Bristol City Council's development control committee in December that it was "never their intention for the building to be an Airbnb" and that they were "locked into a contract with a letting agent".

At the time, councillors deferred a decision on whether to approve retrospective planning permission for minor external alterations, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The owners appealed to the Planning Inspectorate against Bristol City Council's failure to make a decision in time over these alterations.

"Frustrated" councillors have now refused to back down and voted unanimously to fight the appeal on the grounds that they "would have rejected the application".

The application returned to committee on 18 January, where Mr Khaleghi said: "Since the last meeting, we have negotiated with our current tenant and they have agreed to vacate the property by 14 February."

He said the property would in future be let out with a maximum five-person occupancy on a 12-month tenancy agreement.

Committee chair councillor Ani Stafford-Townsend said: "This is a case of repeated failures to comply with permissions.

"I take a very dim view of this, as I'm sure all my colleagues do.

"Apart from the impact on the local community there is a reason why these permissions are there - it endangers life when people don't follow these permissions."