Showing posts with label short-term rentals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label short-term rentals. Show all posts

Friday, March 1, 2013

Turn your East Village apartment into an illegal hotel room in just minutes!



East Village resident Alan Roberts was shocked to receive this offer in the mail from FlipKey.

"I can't believe this company is basically encouraging me to break the law by renting out my apartment as a hotel room. Incredible."

On this topic, did you see the piece at Gothamist a few weeks ago about the city issuing a $30,000 fine to an East Village resident who rented out his room for a few days while on a trip?

Anyway, per Gothamist:

As it stands now, the current law prohibits New Yorkers from renting out single-family apartments, or rooms within them, for fewer than 30 days—unless the tenant or homeowner is living in the home at the same time.

And FlipKey does have a few East Village properties, like this one on East 13th Street...

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Tenants turn detectives to out short-term rentals and illegal hotel guests

This past weekend, The New York Times published a piece about residents of Stuy Town listing their apartments as hotel rooms on the website AirBnB.com.

(For most residential buildings, a 2010 law prohibits rentals of fewer than 30 days. Although those who microsublet for fewer than 30 consecutive days and remain present in the unit along with their guests — and those who don't accept money from renters while away on vacation — are exempt, according to city officials, as the Post recently pointed out.)


Short-term rentals of this nature have been a problem for the housing complex for about two years and residents are concerned about things like bed bug infestations – which are on the rise — and security risks. Unhappy with CWCaptial and Rose Associates' response to the ongoing problem, residents have taken their frustration to the Tenants Association's Facebook page, posting links and the names and addresses of the hosts. From the article:

John Marsh, vice president of the tenants’ association, blamed the complexes’ leasing agent, Rose Associates, for not policing the “explosion of short-term rentals.” The tenants, in partnership with Brookfield Asset Management, are trying to buy the properties.

“It’s odd that people who are not private investigators can take these people’s information and find them on the Internet,” Mr. Marsh said. “Given that capability, you would imagine that someone like Adam Rose, who is quite resourceful, can do the same,” he added, referring to the co-president of Rose Associates.

In response, Joe DePlasco, a spokesman for Rose Associates and CW Capital, which took control of the two complexes in 2010 after Tishman Speyer defaulted on the property, says they have sent sent cease-and-desist letters to 50 tenants since the middle of last year.

In related short-term hotel news, two apartments at 31 St. Marks Place appear to have surfaced on another short-term rental website, manhattanbnb.com. A tipster believes the apartment listed as “#15 St. Marks Place” is really an apartment at located at 31 St. Marks Place.


Says the tipster:

"I’m curious about the development of two of the apartments in the building being used as hotel rooms aimed at tourists.

I stumbled upon this website www.manhattanbnb.com with the cringe-worthy motto “Live Like We Live!” which lists one of the apartments in 31 Saint Marks Place as “#15 St Marks Place”

I don’t understand how one couple with the cutesy name, John n’ Lucy, have all these apartments in the neighborhood to let out to tourists. John n’ Lucy certainly have never lived in my building.

Now that the media outlets such as the Times are on the story, more and more residents are feeling empowered to do something about the short-term rentals in their buildings. We'll be posting more of these moving forward...

Previously on EV Grieve:
The house rules of a short-term rental on St. Mark's Place

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

The house rules of a short-term rental on St. Mark's Place

We're hearing more about short-term rentals in the East Village following Friday's post about 528 E. 13th St. We heard from a former resident of 31 St. Mark's Place.

"I keep in touch with my old neighbors all the time and it sounds like the building has changed hands several times and most recently, we discovered that the owner is possibly illegally renting apartments like a hotel."

The resident points us to an Airbnb listing for a "DREAMY" apartment on St. Mark's Place...


The "approximate" address is 38 St. Mark's Place... which isn't an existing address on St. Mark's Place.

In any event, this particular listing is worth noting for the "house rules," which we reposted below... (The all caps are part of the rules; the bold is our doing)...

PLEASE BE COURTEOUS AND POLITE TO THE NEIGHBORS in the building. They do not want to live with crazy, loud people. Please: No crazy parties or loud drinking! TRY NOT TO TALK TO THEM. DO NOT TELL ANYBODY YOU ARE RENTING MY APARTMENT. DO NOT TELL ANYBODY WHICH APT YOU ARE STAYING IN. JUST TELL THEM YOU ARE A FRIEND VISITING. Please DO NOT TALK IN THE HALLWAYS. If anybody were to ask you something, you are a friend staying with me on holiday visiting New York and you did not pay me money to stay at the apartment BUT TRY TO AVOID CONVERSATION. Please try to be discreet going up the stairs and try not to linger in the hallways