A pair of landlords on Manhattan’s Upper West Side are suing Airbnb and two tenants for flouting recent city restrictions on home sharing — with the constructing owners claiming they’re being exposed to stiff fines.
Airbnb and the tenants are “thumbing their noses” at Local Law 18, which went into effect on Sept. 5 and requires hosts to register with the town with a view to rent out their apartments for stretches lower than 30 days, in accordance with Michael Pensabene, an actual estate attorney at law firm Rosenberg & Estis.
The firm represents the owner of 207 Columbus Ave. — a five-story walkup that got slapped with a $12,000 tremendous last month for allowing tenant Carmen Magarin de Dominguez to illegally list her three-bedroom apartment on Airbnb — despite the very fact she doesn’t live there, in accordance with court papers.
“She’s promoting my client’s unit to accommodate as much as 16 people and he or she is charging $1,000 an evening,” Pensabene told The Post. “And if we are able to’t stop Carmen Dominguez from doing this, she could cause one other tremendous to be issued that might be twice as much because the one we’ve got now.”
Dominguez — who in court papers attributed traffic out and in of her apartment to “roommates” and “family and friends” — failed to look at a court hearing within the case on Monday, in accordance with Pensabene. She couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
Meanwhile, the owner of 30 Lincoln Plaza — a complicated, 33-story, glass-and-steel tower across the road from Lincoln Center that boasts a personal club and rooftop pool — is suing 73-year-old tenant Jerome Dewald, claiming he has been renting out his one-bedroom apartment for $175 an evening and a second “private sitting room.”
The latter has a settee bed and a “wall secretary [that] serves as a partition, with a locking door,” for $87 an evening, in accordance with court documents.
The constructing’s 24-hour doormen and surveillance cameras spotted Dewald “on two separate occasions carrying each sheetrock and picket 2x4s within the constructing ,.. presumably” to create “an extra bedroom” in violation of his lease and required approvals from the Department of Buildings, in accordance with court papers.
“Are you able to imagine a 73-year-old man carrying two-by-fours?” Dewald told The Post, denying the allegations in an interview.
Dewald conceded his apartment wasn’t registered with the town. “We were in the course of an orderly wind-down of my listings when the posse showed up with its bags of lies,” he said, referring to his landlord and the law firm representing it.
“I’ve been upfront about renting on Airbnb,” Dewald added. “I live with my guests once they are here.”
Nevertheless, “He is badly using the apartment for transient guests,” countered Deborah Riegel, an attorney representing landlord S&P Associates, which hasn’t yet been slapped with fines over Dewald’s listings. S&P also claims that Dewald has not paid his rent for the reason that pandemic and has a dog — a beagle named Ricky, in accordance with Dewald’s Airbnb profile — against the constructing’s no-pet policy.
Airbnb took Dewald’s listing down after the owner’s lawsuit was filed on Oct. 5. It removed Dominguez’s listing on Sept. 21, in accordance with court documents.
Airbnb said it’s cooperating with the town to implement the law, saying it relies on the town’s verification system to weed out hosts who aren’t registered. Town’s Office of Special Enforcement, which regulates home sharing sites and enforces the brand new law, didn’t reply to requests for comment.
The legal squabbles are the most recent sign of chaos that has erupted for the reason that law went into effect, which has decimated Airbnb’s presence in Recent York City as many hosts have either been forced into offering 30-day rentals or have gone underground, as an alternative listing their spaces on Craigslist and Facebook, as The Post reported.
While the town has struggled to satisfy demand for registrations, the brand new rules have also made it less attractive for hosts. Now, for instance, the town is enforcing a requirement for hosts to be home once they are renting out space to visitors and aren’t allowed to rent to greater than two people per night.
In response to a Bloomberg report, the Recent York law has Wall Street concerned about Airbnb’s stock, with an “all-time high” of six analysts advising investors to sell.
Dewald, meanwhile, is not any stranger to controversy. Last yr, an Instagram post of him in Central Park holding a bullhorn that blared “asshole” at cyclists who ignored traffic lights and speed limits went viral, as The Post reported.
He also attracted attention for his marijuana legalization advocacy within the Big Apple where he got here under scrutiny for running a PAC and was busted in 2005 in Michigan on fraud and larceny charges tied to 2 political motion committees – one for Al Gore and one for George W. Bush.
Dominguez can also be being sued by one other landlord –Wid Realty Corp. – who has been attempting to evict her from a close-by apartment at 227 Columbus Ave. since April, claiming she listed her unit in that constructing on Airbnb in violation of multi-dwelling regulations that were previously on the books.
Dominguez has denied the allegations, in accordance with court documents.