75% of NYC Airbnb Rentals are Illegal, Attorney General Says

• October 16th 2014

by Lark Turner

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The New York attorney general isn’t letting up on Airbnb.

After analyzing four years of data provided to his office by Airbnb, attorney general Eric Schneiderman said that three-quarters of the listings in the city are illegal in some way or another, according to The New York Times. Back in April the same office suggested two-thirds of the city’s listings were in violation of subletting laws, prompting an almost-taunting response from Airbnb:

“On Tuesday, Airbnb will be in court in Albany, fighting the Attorney General’s demand for your data. The government will accuse Airbnb hosts of being bad neighbors and bad citizens. They’ll call us slumlords and tax cheats. They might even say we all faked the moon landing,” the company’s spokesman, David Hantman, wrote. “Short term rental laws were never meant to apply to New Yorkers occasionally renting out their own home.”

Airbnb’s tone has since gotten a little more serious. On Thursday, spokesman Nick Papas told the Times the following:

“Every single home, apartment, co-op and living space in New York is subject to a myriad of rules, so it’s impossible to make this kind of blanket statement. That kind of uncertainty and lack of clarity is exactly why we’re advocating for clear, fair rules for home sharing.”

It looks like Airbnb may be advocating for rules similar to what were recently passed in San Francisco, which legalize the rentals and limit stays to 90 days or less.

But meanwhile, Schneiderman said he would start aggressively pursuing operators of “illegal hotels.”

“Anyone operating an illegal hotel should be on notice that the state and city will take aggressive enforcement actions in this area,” Schneiderman told the Times. “A slick advertising campaign doesn’t change the fact that this is illegal activity.”

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/75_of_nyc_airbnb_rentals_are_illegal_attorney_general_says/9105.