AirBnB......Grrrrr......

I had constant problems with my upstairs neighbor who turned her apartment into an AirBnB whenever she went on vacation -- and she took lots of them! She kept claiming they were relatives staying in her apartment while she was out of town.

It all "hit the fan" when she had "relatives" who caused water damages to my apartment and 2 below. Apparently these "relatives" came home drunk and did something to the toilet letting it overflow for 8 hours. This happened on a Saturday night in the summer when a lot of people were away, me included.

The super's son found my apartment flooded when he came in to feed my cats. Water was pouring out of the electric outlets and the light fixtures in the bathroom and foyer. The popcorn on the ceiling came down. A week later, one of the walls in the bathroom collapsed. The insurance company estimated the repair work at $10,000! The 2 apartments below had lesser damages running to just a few thousand dollars.

Then there were the other "relatives" who kept us up on weeknights. Between the wild parties, loud music and tv, and piano playing, we were going wild. We had the doorman, managing agent, and local precinct on speed dial.

As a result of this neighbor, the condo implemented very stringent regulations for "guests" and "relatives" entering the building at all.

I thought New York magazine's story on it was well-done: http://nymag.com/news/features/airbnb-in-new-york-debate-2014-9/

ali r.
{downtown broker}

Tourists should stay at the Sheraton.

jelj13: Our condo just did exactly the same thing: tight rules, and high fines with no cap on fines for repeat offenses.

co-ops.

West 81st: We set up escalating fines for repeat offenders and tacked it onto their maintenance. If they didn't pay after 3 months, our building's lawyer served them notice that we were going to court. The first time we had to go to court, the word spread like wildfire, especially when we applied for a lien against the property.

Kylewest: this was a CONDO, not a coop.

Yes front porch I really like that headline, "The dumbest person in your building is handing out keys to your front door!"

Kyle means co-ops are the solution.

But not necessarily. If there is no doorman, or the doorman has been paid off, or the building is too big to keep track of everybody (I'm talking you, Lincoln Towers-Upper West Side, where I ran in and out for many weeks as a real estate agent without anybody batting an eyelash)--a hotel business can be damn hard to detect.

Flutistic, you understood me correctly. For 8 years on SE, I have said that coops are the right choice for some people. This problem is precisely the type I sought to avoid when looking exclusively at coops when shopping. Oh, the abuse that was hurled in response at times on this forum. Some people like the freedom of a condo and that's great for them. But some see a condo's supposed benefits as drawbacks and co-ops can be the right fit for them (me). There is a place for both in NYC real estate and no one is forced to buy in either one. But the idea that co-ops are bad and condos are good is and always has been silly. This AirBNB type headache is largely eliminated in any decent co-op.

Remember our darling Sophie Grishanova? She who said "This is America. I can do what I want." No, as far as her condo went. She fought her condo over short-term rentals, lost big-time, then lost on appeal, sued the NY Post, sued Zillow because we discussed her case here. Now, a fortune in legal fees later, she's suing her lawyer for malpractice: https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/fbem/DocumentDisplayServlet?documentId=zHVs3rP9qFRZ_PLUS_x_PLUS_82lsMRA==&system=prod

Wow what an amazing filing. Thanks NWT for that link.

S_____ G_________ who? I have no idea who that is. And that link didn't work, actually my mouse couldn't reach that link.

I wish I'd kept the kept the letter her then-lawyer (the one she's suing now) sent after Zillow gave him all our addresses. It was a hoot.

I agree with kylewest about condos versus coops. I lived in a coop, then a condo, then another condo, and now a coop again. I lived in the first coop during the conversion and left when I needed more space because the board was so abusive that there were always law suits. So I vowed never to live in a coop again. I moved a few times afterwards as our housing needs changed. In the last condo, most people bought the apartments as rental investments. The real problem there was these investors acted as absentee landlords, so the sponsor and managing agent had tremendous control. It was as if you had a landlord. So I was more focused on how the building was run on the my current purchase. The best match turned out to be a coop. I was a bit apprehensive about this, but it's the best place I've lived in so far.

We just this month sold a co-op unit in a building with a childish board, which is why we went condo this time.

But jelj13 is right, and Kyle is right--a good co-op board is perfect. But we bought our co-op with a good board, and then over time there was a power play and a new board came in, and it's been fighting and craziness ever since.

The truth is there is no perfect kind of place to live. I think we've done them all except an RV or a houseboat. We're not up to taking care of a house anymore; rentals don't work for us financially, and you give up too much control; and there is always the risk of a power crazy co-op board. If you can afford to sue a condo board, and we can, and you have excellent tough bylaws, and we do, then condos seem the most agreeable to us right now.

>I think we've done them all except an RV or a houseboat.

So you have done the van down by the river!

Rock on with your bad self, nwt!

Agree totally with Kyle. I know some people prefer the freedom of a condo, and that's fine. Personally I like the idea of most of my neighbors being owners and not running the risk of an airbnb situation in the building. Our building is very well managed, the staff is great and I have had no reason to complain about the board which, reflecting a transition in the building, is becoming more inclusive of younger people (meaning ages 35-50, not college kids or recent grads).

Judge not NWT's self bad, lest ye be judged mad.

it is completely disingenuous for "tenant advocates" to say that Airbnb makes buildings less safe when, at the same time, these same advocates support rent stabilized tenants taking in roommates without the landlord's permission. The issues are similar. Illegal roommates overcrowd units and can bring in unsafe sub-tenants yet this same anti-Airbnb lobby fights to protect this subletting (although it is illegal courts won't enforce these laws).
If Airbnb is outlawed then housing courts must start evicting tenants who overcrowd or rent to illegal sub letters.

Flutistic: Owning a house isn't always ideal. Several friends have had similar issues with neighbors and governing bodies; everything is just distanced a bit geographically.

>Several friends have had similar issues with neighbors and governing bodies; everything is just distanced a bit geographically.

Where do they live?

We have a suspected airbnb situation in our non-doorman co-op, and it's seeming impossible to prove. Until someone confronts me with hard evidence, there's nothing I can do. The best I've come up with so far is a house rule requiring guest to be "pre-registered" on a Google docs calendar. At least this way, we're tracking the number of guests and how long they're here.

Ironically, I suspect one of these airbnb guests actually saved the co-op from a lot of damage. When someone's water pipe burst on Christmas Eve and truly no one in the building was home, the airbnb guest called the owner, who called everyone in the building until he found someone whose cleaning person was able to come by. There's a part of me that thinks limited, responsible use of airbnb may not be a terrible thing, given that our building is literally EMPTY on Christmas, July 4th, and other major holidays.

I live in a well-established, large condominium building in San Francisco with very strict rules. One is that an owner can only rent out his/her unit for a MINIMUM six month period. No exceptions. In addition, that potential renter's credentials are reviewed by the Sales and Rental Committee to address financial issues. Since this is a large building, a few morons have attempted to get someone past the doormen, who are brilliant and know exactly who lives here. A few airb&b people have shown up: we allow them to stay ONE NIGHT so they won't be out on the street, but they are expected to leave the following afternoon. In addition, there is a $500 PER DAY FEE to the owner. It has definitely curbed the problem. One idiot actually advertised the front awning showing the name of our building as well as photos of amenities such as the gym, community room, etc.

>I live in a well-established, large condominium building in San Francisco with very strict rules.

Riccardo, you are so establishment

http://nypost.com/2015/02/20/rent-stabilized-tenants-who-peddle-their-pads-may-be-evicted/
http://nypost.com/2015/08/16/cipriani-club-kicked-me-out-because-im-black-suit/

I thought NYC and the hotel lobby were suing AirBNB , is there an update on that ?
NYC wants the hotel taxes , hotels want their monopoly

Any new lawsuits from Sophie?
or Henry Ikezi http://therealdeal.com/2016/01/21/appeals-court-upholds-decision-to-evict-rent-stabilized-airbnb-host/ http://pospislaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Complaint-Ikezi-v.-Cipriani-et-al.pdf
or what about that comedian who had the "freak fest"?

Nothing new from our Sophie. Her condo's 2012 suit against her has been restored, as the condo wants to recover additional costs it incurred. Her 2014 suit against her former lawyer drags on.

Ikezi has too many cases to keep track of. Or rather, he and that comedian, whose name I forget, didn't grab me the way Sophie did.

Or the way Goldwyn Thandrayen did. His case also drags on. It's full of funny/interesting depositions from brokers, lawyers, managing agents, and everyone else involved.

Ikezi's discrimination suit was dismissed last month: https://www.pacermonitor.com/public/case/9001805/Ikezi_v_Cipriani_Club_55_LLC,_et_al

"Freak Fest" victim Ari Teman, apparently with new stage name Ari Silver (Ari Gold was taken and Ari Diamond is not for someone who needs extra cash via AirBnB), has started a new web site against AirBnB.

Amazing how many people with AirBnB problems and lawsuits also have additional unrelated personal litigation.

Btw, what happened to NYCNovice and the Beekman? And the Aboutready lady and Peter Cooper Village lawsuit and subsequent rent hikes for everyone else after she collected her taxpayer subsidized windfall?

HWNCNBM finally found a sympathetic ear at SE. Zillow handled it very well and told me I could only keep one user name active. They let me choose which name to keep active and made clear that they were not intending to edit substance, but rather form, and that I was free to repost substance under single name. I have not done so b/c it is all very old news at this point.

So you have this and a couple others left but no longer NYCNovice.

PS - clever positioning as you "agreed to remove" the posting name for which another poster attached your real name.

I had retired NYCN and officially reverted back to MCR some months before they asked me which name I wanted to keep active, so it would have been odd to render inactive the one name that was actually active and revive the one that I had retired.

well, if it was official, then I get it.