Sunday, October 23, 2016

AirBnB bill signed by Cuomo

From NY1:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed legislation on Friday designed to crack down on the online advertising of multi-family dwellings in New York City — a measure seen aimed at limiting the popular online rental service Airbnb.

The bill’s approval is a win for affordable housing advocates who have decried the impact Airbnb has had in New York City. It is also a win for the Hotel Trades Council, a small but politically influential labor union that has backed efforts to regulate Airbnb.

And the legislation was backed by the Real Estate Board of New York, a monied and influential coalition of property owners in New York City.

“This legislation is an important step toward stopping illegal behavior that takes precious housing units off the market, threatens hotel workers’ jobs and hurts the quality of life for residents in our City’s multifamily buildings,” said John Banks, III, President of the Real Estate Board of New York. “We would like to thank the Governor as well as the members of the State Senate and Assembly for addressing this critical issue.”

Airbnb, meanwhile, has signaled on Friday afternoon it will file a lawsuit to challenge the measure.

7 comments:

R185 said...

The AP story on this had me confused. It said "... residents who rent spare bedrooms, or own row houses or single-family homes are exempt from the law." Not sure what their saying about "row houses"? Are they saying even a two family "row house" would be legal? Or are they making a distinction between single and row houses that really doesn't exist?

Anonymous said...

as long as the owner lives in the apartment that he or she rents a room in on airbnb, then it is LEGAL-

if a owner has a two family home and rents out rooms, I believe it is still legal as long as the owner is present and living in the same residence-

it is illegal to buy up 5 homes or apartments and then rent them out less than 30 days-

JQ LLC said...

Why don't home homeowners just give their homes a brand name if they are going to run a makeshift hotel. Like the Bailey Boarding House, envisioned by George Bailey's drunken state fever dream.

It seems that the only places where that criminal enterprise can operate is in middle class areas where the majority of one and 2 family homes, row houses, and 3 or four story like condos. It will be a lot harder to operate in comparison to apartment buildings and complexes, for those venues makes it easier for strangers and tourists to move around unnoticed.

I hope this is the first step in destroying the sharing economy. In my opinion, it's just creating and even worse economic bubble and is responsible for the majority of homeless who are actual residents of the 5 boroughs. Especially fucking brooklyn

Anonymous said...

I want to believe this was to protect neighborhoods and people living in proximity to sites that rent on AirBnB, but I am suspicious it is just a payback for donations from the hotel industry.

Anonymous said...

If RBNY is supporting it, it's gotta be bad, right?

Anonymous said...

They will find a way around it all.

Anonymous said...

And a lot of hot air B&B it is.