NYC Delays Enforcement of Rental Rules Aimed at Airbnb

In what may be an early glimmer of a truce or—more likely—a recognition of the economic reality that tourism usually peaks in the summer, New York City is delaying the enforcement its new registration rules for short-term rentals until September 5, the day after Labor Day.

The sudden olive branch from the city comes a week after Airbnb and three of its NYC hosts filed a lawsuit seeking an injunction to block the new rules from going into effect on July 1, calling the requirements a “de facto” ban of short-term rentals.

Last year, NYC adopted a new registration process for short-term rentals that requires Airbnb hosts to register with a database overseen by the Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement (OSE), submit diagrams of their homes and a list of who resides there, and prove they are abiding by local zoning and safety requirements.

The rules are aimed at landlords the city claims have been illegally collecting Airbnb booking fees for their properties. Failure to comply could result in up to $5,000 in penalty fees. The rules require Airbnb to certify that all of the information provided by its hosts to NYC is accurate or be subject to fines of up to $1,500 per violation.

At a press conference at City Hall last week, Karen Dunn, a lawyer representing the home-sharing giant, said the rules—which also prohibit hosts from installing locks on guest’s bedroom doors or renting out their homes while residents are on vacation—will force Airbnb to cancel thousands of reservations over the summer.

“The city will be the Grinch that stole summer,” Dunn declared.

The Mayor’s Office, which last week offered a muted response to the lawsuit which simply said it would “review” the complaint, this week filed a response notifying the state court of its intention to delay enforcement of the regulations until September.

Dunn, who last week claimed that NYC had refused to consider “reasonable alternatives” to its new short-term rental rules, issued a statement on Tuesday reiterating that Airbnb is seeking to negotiations regarding the registration process.

“While we are happy on behalf of guests and hosts whose summer plans and rentals will no longer be ruined by these rules, we hope the city will use the extra time to collaborate with us on a sensible alternative solution that will benefit hosts, tourism, and the local economy,” Dunn said.

Airbnb claims to have more than 38,000 hosts in NYC, but says only 10 of them have been able to navigate the new registration process.

When it adopted the registration requirement last year, the city said the new rules are needed to shut down widespread illegal rental activity that has been using fake Host profiles on Airbnb and other sharing platforms to market “substandard” short-term housing.

The registration requirements were enacted in the wake of a lawsuit filed in July by OSE to shut down what it called an illegal short-term rental operation being run by a licensed real estate broker in Turtle Bay.

According to NYC’s complaint, broker Arron Latimer and building owner Apex Management ran an illegal short-term rental operation at 344 East 51^st Street using Airbnb to make the bookings.

The lawsuit was announced by Mayor Eric Adams, who said that “bad actors” have for several years “used fake host profiles on popular sites like Airbnb to deceive and lure unsuspecting guests into paying for substandard lodging at illegal rental listings.”

“Not only did they unlawfully pocket millions, but they endangered guests and deprived New Yorkers of an entire building’s worth of long-term housing,” Adams said.

“We are sending a clear message that this kind of lawlessness will not be tolerated in our city. We are not going to stand by while shady brokers use illegal listings and fake host accounts to skirt the law and defraud consumers,” the mayor said.