Their spokesman, Amir Farhan, 25, who is a house owner at Birch Regency here, said that the houses that were rented for short term had been issued summon by MBPP but there was no any law explaining why they were summoned.

In the summonses issued by the council, it was written that the house owners were operating a homestay without licence under the Local Council By-laws with the fine amounting to RM250.

“We have been receiving summonses and when we went to the council and ask if we could apply for a licence to operate, they told us that no such licence exist. Besides, we are not operating a hotel or a lodging facility, we are just renting our house for a short while to others,” he said here today.

Amir stressed that MBPP should come out with regulations before blindly issuing summonses to house owners who rent their houses for a short term.

The majority of the house owners facing such problems are those who advertised their houses on short term rent on Airbnb, an online booking site for those interested to rent a house at their preferred location. — Bernama