Tenant Slapped with $420,000 Lawsuit After Renting Out Flat to Airbnb

An Airbnb host in New York is being sued after incurring 4 violations against her landlord for renting out her flat to travelers via Airbnb, an illegal act in the city. However, the accused woman claims she is not an Airbnb host.

Jewish Business News reports that tenant Madalina Iacob is being sued by her landlord for repeatedly renting out her flat to short-term apartment rental websites such as Airbnb, which caused the landlord to be charged about $60,000 in fines alone, and which cost about four times as much. Lawrence Silberman, lawyer for the owner of the apartment in question, 357 W. 54th St. states that the landlord was "unaware of the rental scheme" and that they did not participate or make profit from Iacob's illegal rentals. However, the city's laws still hold the landlord liable for this infringement, and the building was still charged for four violations by the city, including a charge for running an illegal hotel service and not having adequate fire escapes and alarm systems.

According to New York Daily News, Iacob's violation was discovered by chance when the staff were making repairs to the building when they encounter someone bringing luggage with them. This sparked an inquiry and the subsequent discovery of this scheme. Iacob has denied this first encounter, but has also repeatedly used her apartment after the initial discovery, which eventually led to city inspectors discovering Iacob's illegal renting. This led to the owners of the building being fined 1000-a-day fines - a total of $45,000 - for 'transient use' and then another $16,000 in base fines, and may increase to a total of $250,000. 

News.com.au mentions that Iacob claimed all her guests were just friends and family, and that the building has no doormen, making it difficult for them to catch her in the act. Iacob will be hiring a lawyer to fight the lawsuit, and claims that she was not an Airbnb host and also claims that she did not initially know about the charges pressed against her.

Iacob was known to charge $200 a night, and the lawsuit against Iacob seeks a court order blocking Iacob from continuing to rent out her apartment, and aims to force her to pay for the building's fine and legal fees. The total amount Iacob is being sued for is $250,000 for the fines the landlord incurred, plus $50,000 in legal fees.

Tags

Airbnb, Airbnb illegal hotel probe, New York, New York City, New York City News, New York City Crime, Lawsuit, new york regulations on tenancy

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