Category Archives: Airbnb

NYC raids Atelier building in Midtown in attempt to crack down on illegal short term rentals

In the largest deployment yet, about 20 enforcement officers descended on the Atelier condo on West 42nd street and issued  27 summonses for illegal rentals to 20 different owners, including two members of their condo’s Board of Directors. The City is attempting to crack down on illegal rentals and this is the biggest effort yet but may been an indication of things to come. There is a new law that will force sites such as AirBnB to share the information of their hosts with the City which could go into affect as soon as February.

WSJ coverage

The Author-  Brian Silvestry , a licensed real estate broker, has been selling residential and commercial real estate since 1999. He has sold in every neighborhood from Battery Park City to Washington Heights.

REBNY supports bill for Airbnb to share owner information

The Real Estate Board of New York(REBNY) fully supports a proposal of the City Council to mandate that home sharing sites like Airbnb share their users’ information with the City.

REBNY believes that Airbnb is one of the main reasons that rents have risen in the last decade in New York City while Airbnb maintains that home sharing is not even among the top 20 reasons that rents have risen. They do acknowledge that there needs to be measures to ensure that landlords maintain control over their buildings and is in favor of measures to eliminate abuse of the site.

Some regulation is definitely needed as there is a security issue with the rampant use of home sharing sites as not only buildings but blocks become more transient due to the widespread use. Landlords do have a right to better enforce the abuse of the sharing economy.

REBNY opinion here

Airbnb side here.

Previous coverage

The Author-  Brian Silvestry , a licensed real estate broker, has been selling residential and commercial real estate since 1999. He has sold in every neighborhood from Battery Park City to Washington Heights.