Renting out villas when out of Indonesia

[Davita]

I couldn't find an appropriate thread so created a new one.
My wife just showed me info from facebook (I'm not a facebooker) about some lady who casually rents her villa in Canggu, Bali ....when she goes back to her home country. She seemed unaware that this needs permits etc and now Immigration has kept her passport and she may be in trouble.
Here is her facebook alert which comes from something called 'Canggu Community'.
"Had a visit from immigration yesterday -- are you aware that in order to have paying guests stay at your house - a foreigner must have a PMA and Kitas? I wasn’t (and my passport is now with immigration - pending review). They had a printout from Airbnb with my listing in their folder."

Co-incidentally, this was a pub conversation yesterday where a friend said his empty Seminyak villa was visited but he'd briefed his security guy to always say that only family members visited and NEVER paying guests. They left a declaration sheet for him to fill and return.

I heard there is a clamp-down on illegal rentals and is sponsored by the Hotel Association.

It is a requirement to have a Pondok Wisata to rent a villa in Bali but many foreigners either don't bother or are unaware...time to be aware and bother... I'd say!

 

[jstar]

I guess she is always here on Visit Visa and ‘her’ house falls under a nominee structure?

 

[dafluff]

"Had a visit from immigration yesterday -- are you aware that in order to have paying guests stay at your house - a foreigner must have a PMA and Kitas? I wasn’t (and my passport is now with immigration - pending review). They had a printout from Airbnb with my listing in their folder."

Of course this is a requirement. Listing a residence on AirBnB for the purpose of daily rentals sounds very much like a business (it is). So people are willfully ignoring this at their own peril. Just cause everyone's doing it, doesn't mean it's legal.