Tenants Who Use Airbnb – Keeping Them In and Kicking Them Out
September 7, 2016
Things around here are busy because of the uptick in short-term leasing violations, occasioned by tenants engaging in Airbnb and similar illegal short-term sublet arrangements. I offer a few examples.
Itkowitz PLLC was hired by a residential landlord to prosecute a case against a tenant who was engaging in illegal short-term leasing. We included all of the evidence gathered – from the short-term leasing platform, social media, and cameras – in the termination notice. We had video of the short-term guests coming and going from the subject apartment at the same time that the tenant was posting public Instagram pictures of himself on a beach far away from New York. The tenant decided that he did not wish to fight about it, so he left before the landlord had to sue him.
Then we were hired by a young couple who did Airbnb just once, but was hit by their landlord with a nuisance termination notice. We wrote a letter to landlord’s counsel explaining that nuisance requires a pattern of bad behavior, not a single instance. Landlord backed down and agreed to let the tenants stay, in exchange for a promise that they would do no more Airbnb.
I do not know if Airbnb is “good for New York”, but I know it’s good for lawyers because it’s keeping many of us busy.
Things around here are busy because of the uptick in short-term leasing violations, occasioned by tenants engaging in Airbnb and similar illegal short-term sublet arrangements. I offer a few examples.
Itkowitz PLLC was hired by a residential landlord to prosecute a case against a tenant who was engaging in illegal short-term leasing. We included all of the evidence gathered – from the short-term leasing platform, social media, and cameras – in the termination notice. We had video of the short-term guests coming and going from the subject apartment at the same time that the tenant was posting public Instagram pictures of himself on a beach far away from New York. The tenant decided that he did not wish to fight about it, so he left before the landlord had to sue him.
Then we were hired by a young couple who did Airbnb just once, but was hit by their landlord with a nuisance termination notice. We wrote a letter to landlord’s counsel explaining that nuisance requires a pattern of bad behavior, not a single instance. Landlord backed down and agreed to let the tenants stay, in exchange for a promise that they would do no more Airbnb.
I do not know if Airbnb is “good for New York”, but I know it’s good for lawyers because it’s keeping many of us busy.
