Short term sublets are illegal in New York City

Airbnb is one of the most popular subletting sites in the world and NYC is their most popular destination. It makes sense: New York city is an international city that’s on nearly everyone’s bucket list for travel.

Travelers coming into the city deserve to have a safe and comfortable place to stay. However, the risks of allowing short term rentals into your apartments, co-ops and condos are plentiful.

Captain Obvious here!

The obvious risks are the infamous extremes. While these types of incidents are rare, they nonetheless do occur. We often look at such cases through the lens of "this would never happen in my community", but the universe usually answers that naïve thought with a steaming hot serving of Murphy's Law. While the list below may look like snippets of an episode of Law and Order, these are actual stories we've heard from property managers, condo board representatives and building owners that we work with:

• Orgies – not just a few people, dozens of people.
• Drugs – this includes not just wild parties, but parties that went awry, i.e. drug overdose.
• Beer busts – young adults that book apartments to transform into an underage bar.
• Feces – yup, the human kind, on the walls.
• Prostitutes / trafficking
• Trashing the place like a Behind the Music episode with Motley Crue

The Not So Obvious Risks

Fines

The city is no longer turning a blind eye to short term rentals. Whether you agree with the regulation of living space and/or the protection of the hotel industry – the law is there and the penalties are steep, check out this NY Times article. Since October of 2016 you can rack up quite a large citation if short term subletting occurs within your building.

Discomfort

Whether or not we like to admit it, it's weird to see strangers where we live. It can be downright unnerving. Not everyone is kosher with random people coming in and out of your building, even if they're a harmless, sweet retired couple from Sweden just taking in the sights. If you want to keep your tenants and owners happy, keep the short term sub-letters out.

Wear and tear

Hotels are long-standing institutions for a reason. Travelers bring unnecessary wear and tear to your buildings that you simply aren't equipped to handle on a large scale.

Monitor it

Even if you own just a handful of properties, keeping unwanted sub-letters at bay is time-consuming and annoying, but nonetheless necessary. Stay focused on your business, while you let a monitoring system like LeaseAbuse do the legwork behind the scenes to keep your buildings safe from this unwanted activity.