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...
11 comments:
Received the same flyer in the mail yesterday and was a little horrified. We have neighbors who rent to transients and it is a huge pain for the other residents of the building. Can Department of Consumer Affairs do something about FlipKey, or is there another agency one should contact about their solicitation for illegal activity?
Is airbnb illegal then?
Airbnb has a very long disclaimer freeing them of the legal burden, and passes it onto the user.
As a Landlord, I will tell you that I have seen bedbugs come from airbnb rentals on more than one occasion. I have also have problems with guests being VERY disruptive to other tenants. Oh, and most of the time, its rent Stabilized tenants who have <$1000 rents.
https://twitter.com/SMTSay
Found an ad for one in my building. After we had a year where a neighbor had sublet to Israeli college students, who then sublet and nightly rented the place out, I am very opposed.
The idea is interesting, but the concept of strangers coming in and out of supposedly secure homes is not cool. And people treat these like hotel rooms i.e. make noise, don't clean up, etc. Why should they? They are paying $200-300/night
God forbid you should be able to exercise your Constitutional property rights and rent out your own apartment.
How is a rental your property? Since when do renters have actual and meaningful rights?
I must have missed that part of the constitution. Is it before or after the amendment guaranteeing pizza delivery in 30 minutes or less?
This is a transplant phenomenon. I refuse to believe that any native New Yorker would rent their place to a stranger who could be a potential Daniel Rakowitz or Ted Bundy.
There are also those that say they do it because the economy is bad and they don't have a job. Well here's a novel thought, get a job. When I was between jobs I drive for a car service and was a delivery driver for a Chinese Restaurant.
Most of these trust fund brats who do this don't know real struggle and are completely clueless to the danger they submit themselves and others too by doing this. This should be cracked down on. It's only a matter of time before there's a tragedy because of it.
I don't think the trust fund brats need to rent out their apartments like this. From what I see, they can handle the high rents in the neighborhood no problem. They have trust funds, after all!
Trust-funders have no jobs or unwilling to work. Even though their apts. are subsidized by mommy and daddy and that they have amonthly stipend, don't mean that they won't be renting out their apts. to make a few extra bucks to spend on that artisanal cocktails and food. As for your rental property as a Constitutional right to be able to rent it out, did mommy and daddy also purchase your education?
We had a subletter in our co-op who was renting out his place on the weekends. We got his butt tossed out! The people who rented his place were generally pretty nice, but they didn't know the house rules and couldn't get their keys to work in the front door and eventually a group of kids renting his place smoked in the hallways, which is when the co-op board members got tipped off. You'd think he'd know better than to try that crap, given that he had to submit a bunch of paperwork and interview to get into the sublet.
The moral of the story: if you see this sort of stuff and don't like it, tell someone!
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