Is It Legal to Rent Out a Single Family Home in Nyc

Curbed University delivers insider tips and non-tiresome advice on how to purchase, sell, or hire a home or flat. Boosted questions welcomed to tips@curbed.com. Today's topic: short term rental laws!

The world of short term rentals is a weird, tricky affair?especially in a city every bit big as New York. There are dozens of websites that allow people to freely list their homes/apartments/condos, plus additional sites that assistance people make the all-time listing possible. These sites take mostly operated in their own realm, simply in recent months, we've seen many of them get directly support from the city in order to help house people who were displaced by Hurricane Sandy. Information technology'due south obvious that curt term renting is a growing industry that shows no signs of slowing down, but the fact of the matter is that most of these rentals are illegal.

What the Law Says
Contrary to what many may recollect, New York laws about short term rentals are pretty clear, thanks to a new law went into bear upon in 2011. "Under the New York State multiple abode constabulary, a residential multiple dwelling can just be used for what is termed 'permanent resident purposes,'" explains attorney Robert Braverman. "What that means under the statute is that it has to be occupied by the same person or family for thirty or more consecutive days." So annihilation less than xxx days, no thing how you swing it, is violating the police force, unless of course, the place is zoned to be a hotel or hostel.

Are There Exceptions for Family Members?
"If I own an apartment, my immediate family unit can come up in and occupy it as my guest," says Braverman, "just I can't rent information technology out to anyone for less than that 30 days." This, evidently, is "one of the big loopholes." The Class A multiple Habitation law defines "family" equally such:

A "family" is either a person occupying a dwelling and maintaining a household, with not more than 4 boarders, roomers or lodgers, or two or more than persons occupying a domicile, living together and maintaining a common household, with not more than 4 boarders, roomers or lodgers.

And then while the law restricts the occupancy of units to family members, the definition of "family" is quite broad. "People who are engaging in the business of short term rentals," says Braverman, "will very often try to avoid detection by a managing agent, doorman, or concierge by saying 'Oh my friend is coming and she'due south going to be staying for a couple weeks,' I'm leaving her a key."

There's One Other Exception, Besides
It's not illegal to rent a room if you lot are occupying your apartment at the same time and all parts of the apartment are bachelor to the paying guest. However, while the multiple home police may not prohibit this, individual leases or condo/co-op bylaws very well may prohibit it, so anyone interested in doing this should check with their landlord or building board first.

What To Do If Y'all Suspect An Illegal Short Term Rental
There are two ways that illegally operating short term rentals tin can be caught: through private lawyers and by the urban center. The first option is more probable to happen in larger condo or co-op buildings that have legal representation. The board or management will go to their lawyer, similar Braverman, who will investigate the case. Braverman says they first thing they practice is search on sites like Airbnb and Craigslist to encounter if the unit is being advertised. If they find something, they contact the person and ask that they stop. This is when most people "realize the jig is upwards," and they drop information technology. If they don't end, the condo board can take them to courtroom and seek an injunction.

The second way illegal rentals are discovered is through complaints being called into 311 (y'all can also submit complaints online). When an illegal hotel (that'southward the central phrase to use) is reported, a urban center task force investigates, and this can effect in some hefty fines. Kickoff offenders can be fined anywhere from $1,000 to $5,000, and they go up exponentially from there?1 homo currently faces up to $30,000.

Volition These Laws Ever Modify?
Brusk term rentals, and the websites that offer them, are non going to disappear, and companies in the business are trying to modify the regulations. After all, it must be stressful knowing that the majority of your patrons are living outside the police force. Last month, AirBnB, HomeAway, TripAdvisor, and FlipKey formed the Short Term Rental Advocacy Center with the goal of amending "restrictive curt-term rental regulations at the local level." They believe that "existing 'skillful neighbor' laws provide sufficient protection against any confusing behavior on the part of long-term residents or their guests." In New York, the group is "working with local residents and short-term rental providers to share data, establish all-time practices, and accelerate smart short-term rental regulation that benefits all stakeholders." Any real change is years away, but there'southward a take a chance we could come across a future where renting your apartment for $1,500 a week won't country y'all in court, facing $xv,000 in fines.
· New York Country multiple dwelling law [tenant.net]
· Brusque Term Rental Advocacy Heart [official]
· Curbed Academy archives [Curbed]
· Short term rental coverage [Curbed]

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Source: https://ny.curbed.com/2013/3/25/10260752/an-introduction-to-new-yorks-short-term-rental-laws

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