UWS Landlords Sue Airbnb, Tenants Over New Rental Law Violations

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY - Multiple Upper West Side landlords are suing their tenants and short-term rental company Airbnb, alleging both parties are violating New York City's new short-term rental law and causing the landlords to incur hefty fines.

The owners of 207 Columbus Ave. near West 69th Street say one tenant, Carmen Margarin De Dominguez, has been leasing out her apartment inside the building in violation of her lease and the city’s new Local Law 18, according to a lawsuit filed in New York Supreme Court on Sept. 20.

The local law, which went into effect Sept. 5, allows landlords to add their property to a "do not register" list and mandates that hosts register their units with the mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement. Since 207 Columbus Ave. is not registered, the owner says it's been hit with violations from the FDNY and large fines as a result of the illegitimate listing, according to the complaint filed by the landlord Columbus 69th LLC.

Though the owner is demanding $30,000, an attorney for the owners told FOX5 the fine should be at least $3 million.

According to the landlord's complaint, the tenant's lease was terminated in April after the Airbnb listing was discovered. In subsequent court documents, Margarin De Dominguez refuted she wasn't served proper lease termination notices; the apartment was without cooking gas "for many months" and scaffolding prevented an AC unit from being installed in one of the apartment's windows, among other issues. She continued to list the unit without paying rent after the lease termination, the complaint reads.

Margarin De Dominguez told Patch she never listed her unit on Airbnb and she's being sued for "something that's not even true." When asked why she believes the lawsuit came about, she told Patch it's because she is "the only Dominican in the whole building."

Milstein Properties, owners of a property at 63 West 63rd Street, filed a similar complaint against a tenant and Airbnb after the Columbus Avenue owners' lawsuit, according to FOX5.

A state judge has since issued an injunction against a tenant, effectively prohibiting Airbnb from posting the listing online. It's the first time a state court has issued an order of its kind under Local Law 18, The Real Deal first reported.

In another instance, the owner of 30 Lincoln Plaza is suing its 73-year-old tenant who was allegedly renting out his unit for $87 a night, the New York Post reported. That tenant, Jerome Dewald, admitted to the outlet his unit is not registered with the city, adding that "we were in the middle of an orderly wind-down of my listings when the posse showed up with its bags of lies,” referring to the building's owner and the law firm representing it.

As all three buildings are not registered with the city under the local law, it’s unclear how the tenants managed to post the respective listings. Since Sept. 5, the initial phase of Local Law 18 enforcement was intended to focus on "collaborating with the booking platforms to ensure they are using the city's verification system, that all verifications are occurring correctly, and that the platforms stop processing unverified transactions," according to NYC.gov.

A request for comment from an Airbnb representative was not immediately returned Monday.