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NYC Fines Airbnb Hosts For 'Illegal' Home Rentals (cnet.com)

In October, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed into law one of the nation's toughest restrictions on Airbnb, which includes hefty fines of up to $7,500 for people who rent out space in their apartments. Several month have passed and the New York Post has learned of "the first casualties of [the] newly enforceable law." The city has reportedly charged two hosts with a combined total of 17 violations, and since each violation comes with a $1,000 fine, it adds up to $17,000. From their report: Property owner Hank Freid -- who was once crowned one of NYC's "Worst Landlords" by a watchdog group in 2005 -- and real estate broker Tatiana Cames were slapped with 17 violations, at $1,000 apiece, for their allegedly illegal listings on Manhattan's Upper West Side and in Bedford-Stuyvesant, in Brooklyn, according to documents obtained by the Post. Freid, who manages the Marrakech Hotel, was hit with 12 violations for listing SROs in the building on several booking platforms, including Booking.com, Expedia, Kayak, Hotwire, Travelocity, and Orbitz, the citations reveal. Meanwhile, Cames -- who was served with five violations -- allegedly posted five separate listings to Airbnb advertising 320 Macon St, which records show she purchased for $2.15M in 2015. The Macon St. property was discovered to have inadequate fire alarms, sprinklers, illegal subdivisions, and a confused bunch of French tourists in a rear unit, according the procured documents. Cames appears to be making money off the vacancies in the building as she attempts to fill the space, as the same units are advertised as "for rent" on her personal website. The listings also seem to suggest that drawing illegal Airbnb-ers into BedStuy will help "diversify" the locale. If Freid and Cames don't pull their listings, they could be hit with a second set of violations, at $5,000 a pop.

4 of 267 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Go! Government! Go! by fluffernutter · · Score: 0, Troll

    So the government shouldn't be preventing someone from building a smelter plant next to the house you invested in, thus making it worthless? As long as you have a place to live right?

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    Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
  2. Re:Go! Government! Go! by drinkypoo · · Score: 1, Troll

    Well if you're neighbors are like you, I don't blame you.

    My comment made you so angry you forgot how to use apostrophes? U MAD BRO?

    The neighbor behind me runs his bulldozer for hours and hours and hours every week working on and reworking his roads like he's some kind of tweaker and drives like canned fuck. Oh yeah, and one time I had to go down to the lower part of my property and fire off my .22 semi auto rifle rapidly into a burn pile because he was behind my house SHOOTING INTO MY HILL, WHICH IS TO SAY TOWARDS MY HOUSE. If he had just aimed up a little high, he could have fucking killed me. The neighbor across the road from me sets fires that threaten the neighborhood and set up his trailer in the one place on his property where it looks straight into my windows. Across the road and up the way, they put a PRIVATE PROPERTY sign on a BLM access road and shout at people who drive up. Fuck all these fucking fucks right in their fucking necks. Suggesting that I should like these assholes or want to be involved in their business is idiocy. Don't even get me started on the rich white horse owning women with permanent birch face. Slow down to below 25? How's about getting out of the fucking road? The rider is always responsible for the behavior of the animal, and if a horse can't handle vehicles passing nearby, then it should not be ridden on public roads. That, in fact, is the law.

    Meanwhile, I restrict my noises to reasonable hours, drive conscientiously (I did slow down and go away around the horse bitches who were standing their horses in the middle of the roadway jaw jacking), clean up trash in front of my house, stop to check on disabled motorists or on people who appear to be running an illegal grow on someone else's property (are you guys having a problem? Are you sure you're not having a problem?) What's not to like? I'm a fucking angel in this neighborhood, and I'm surrounded by complete pieces of shit who have proven their lack of consideration for those around them by their actions, which is how I know them. If they don't want me to think they're pieces of shit, perhaps they shouldn't behave like pieces of shit.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  3. Re:No man is an island by ComputerGeek01 · · Score: 0, Troll

    Translation:Wah! Wah! I don't know how free markets work! So instead of doing anything to address an obvious shortage in the supply of housing I'm going to bitch and moan until the government makes my safe space all comfy cozy again. Here's the short version for those of your who wasted your life on a liberal arts degree; there are people providing this service in Berlin because there is enough demand for high quality short term housing to support this business model. The solution is not to throw a temper tantrum over how the world works, but instead to invest in new housing developments until the supply has caught up with the demand. This is called economic growth and despite what your NIMBY mommy has told you it's actually a very good thing. If you want to see what whining about housing situations without a proactive solution in play will get you then just look over at California.

  4. What? by s.petry · · Score: 1, Troll

    For all that the Progressive Leftists claim to be against big business and for the working people, they sure as hell don't show it. AirBnB gives people the ability to rent out their property for a few extra bucks. It gives consumers a chance for a possibly better price and experience for accommodations when traveling. That takes the money away from Hotel conglomerates and massive union control and puts it back into the hands of the working people. Isn't that what the Left claims to be all for?

    I find it very odd that instead of looking at perhaps viable concerns with "Does insurance cover certain events?" or "Do we need a vetting and registration process to ensure users are not criminals?" the politicians on the left move to _ban_ them with a vocal minority supporting them. The leftist followers and ideologues boycott and ostracize anyone who agrees with, works with, or uses the service. We just saw that with Uber, because how dare a person try to make money picking up people from the Airport when Union cabbies went on strike to support the lefts complaints about the immigration moratorium. By the way, a neighbor of mine who is a middle class legal immigrant may not be able to pay rent this month and he drives Uber Black and does not even handle airport pickups normally because #boycottuber (or whatever the hashtag is). Way to be for the little guys!

    I think the bigger problem in society right now is a vocal minority of people refuse to have rational dialogue about any issue. The Right may have some past guilt , but the Left is most certainly guilty over the last several years and owns most of the media. Perhaps it's time for the Left to do what we demanded of the Right when they were deemed to be "too Christian", and start listening to the People as a whole instead of being dead set on forcing your ideology down people's throats.

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    -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.