why states must act
Protecting property rights
A Legal Loophole With Real Consequences
Across America, a dangerous legal gap is leaving families, property owners, and co-owners exposed. Right now, short-term rental platforms such as Airbnb, VRBO, and Booking.com allow anyone with access to a property—even a single co-owner or separated spouse—to list that home for rent without the consent of every deeded owner.This oversight has already caused serious harm:
- Homes have been rented out without all owners’ permission.
- Estranged spouses have turned family residences into income properties without consent.
- Innocent co-owners have faced liability, tax, and safety risks for rentals they didn’t authorize.
And because there’s no state or federal law explicitly requiring platform verification of co-owner consent, the victims have little recourse until damage has already been done.
why this matters for every state
Property rights are constitutional rights
The right to control, use, and profit from your property is fundamental. Allowing one owner to unilaterally rent out a shared property violates basic ownership principles recognized in every state’s real property law.
“If your name is on the deed, your consent should count.”
— Amy London, Founder of London’s Law™
technology has outpaced legislation
Short-term rental platforms are global corporations operating under outdated property statutes. State laws written decades ago never anticipated digital platforms facilitating property listings without verifying ownership rights. This leaves a modern legal blind spot—and families unprotected.
it's not just a divorce issue - its. a property rights crisis
While the issue surfaced in a high-conflict divorce, the implications go far beyond family law.
Co-owned properties include:
- Investment and vacation homes
- Inherited estates
- Jointly purchased real estate by siblings or business partners
In all of these cases, one person can currently list an entire home without the others ever knowing.
Public safety & Liability Risks are real
Unauthorized short-term rentals:
- Increase the risk of fraud, trespassing, and property damage
- Compromise the safety of co-owners and neighbors
- Create potential insurance and tax liabilities for innocent owners
- Undermine local zoning and community trust
Courts can't fix this alone
Existing co-ownership law recognizes that one owner cannot unilaterally bind another— but those rulings were never written for digital marketplaces. Only state legislatures can impose platform-level consent verification requirements to prevent abuse before it occurs.
THE SOLUTION: LONDON’S LAW™
London’s Law™ is model legislation written to protect homeowners by requiring short-term rental platforms to verify written consent from every deeded owner before a property can be listed.