Munich to Residents: Start Snitching on Your Neighbors Who Illegally Rent to Tourists

If your neighbor is illegally renting her home out to tourists, kindly turn her in to the authorities. That’s the message this week in Munich, whose governing Social Democrats want to create a website where residents can inform the city if they think the apartment next door is being used for an illegal vacation rental.

The idea of a snitch site for illegal sub-lets might seem extreme, even divisive, but Munich isn’t acting alone. According to the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, Berlin has also introduced just such a site to help enforce a ban on most vacation apartments. That German city governments are going as far as creating forums for informing on errant landlords reveals just how hot a political topic the issue has become.