4 ms·

Renters lost the following things: - The ability to rent out their home when they go away for a long weekend or take a couple weeks of vacation somewhere, most

by travisp 10y ago

Renters lost the following things: - The ability to rent out their home when they go away for a long weekend or take a couple weeks of vacation somewhere, most likely financing a good portion of their rent or vacation. - Affordable ways for family to visit, especially nearby to where they live (e.g. When my family comes into town to see their grandchildren, there aren't even really any hotels nearby, let alone affordable ones. AirBnB was a good, affordable way for them to be nearby when they visit, since like most people in NYC, we don't have a guest bedroom). What many renters would really celebrate, would be an end to many of the restrictions on building that are enriching the owners of the properties at the expense of renters. Much of NYC suffers from height restrictions, historical building laws, and an expensive process to build anything new (and neighbors who will do anything to make sure their properties don't have new competition that might lower prices).

manacit 10y ago
Renter in NYC here (looks like you're one as well). * I didn't lose the ability to rent my apartment out - that was always against the rules/law. My LL just put in new electronic locks in on my building to make sure it was significantly harder to lend apartments in the building out on Airbnb. * As far as affordable places for family, I've always dissuaded them from renting from a largely unregulated market where quality can be difficult to determine in advance and the pitfalls of renting something unsavory could be bedbugs or worse. I live in a neighborhood well served by fairly affordable hotels nearby (in Manhattan!) which can be price competitive with Airbnb, and significantly more regulated. I view this as a positive - this law did not change anyone's ability to rent out a bedroom in an apartment or house that they are also staying in, and stays over 30 days are still legal. It feels like a win/win to me.
- danielweber 10y ago
  > My LL just put in new electronic locks in on my building to make sure it was significantly harder to lend apartments in the building out on Airbnb. Can you explain this part? What do the electronic locks do to discourage lending?
  - goatsi 10y ago
    I would imagine that it uses a keyfob system that is harder to duplicate than just getting a key cut and easier to revoke access to than changing a lock. See this news story for an example of this type of lock in action: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/airbnb-guest-locked-out-of-suite-by-strata-1.3786500 http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/airbnb-guest-...
  - manacit 10y ago
    Like goatsi said below, it makes it much harder to duplicate than a metal key, and tracks the times and fob IDs of everyone using it to get in the building. Instead of being able to run to Home Depot and get a key copy for $3 that you can hand out to whomever you're lending the apartment to, you'd need to copy your fob or lend them yours. This makes it fairly trivial to lock a single fob out, and there are timestamps that can be corroborated with the camera in the building lobby, to see who was using the fob to get into the building. Of course, cursory Googling when they were handed out shows that it's not that difficult to clone the model of key they handed out, but it's still a big 'win' over everyone having the same key.
CPLX 10y ago
Well technically they didn't lose these things, they were already illegal.
vkou 10y ago
> The ability to rent out their home when they go away for a long weekend or take a couple weeks of vacation somewhere, most likely financing a good portion of their rent or vacation. They never had it. Rentals under 30 days have always been illegal in NYC. > Affordable ways for family to visit, especially nearby to where they live... Out of town friends and family aren't renters. I'd love it if my neighbours would subsidize my out-of-country family's travel, too, but for some reason, this doesn't seem to be their top priority. > What many renters would really celebrate... Yes, they would celebrate that very much. In the meantime, every little bit helps.

by travisp 10y ago

manacit 10y ago

Renter in NYC here (looks like you're one as well). * I didn't lose the ability to rent my apartment out - that was always against the rules/law. My LL just put in new electronic locks in on my building to make sure it was significantly harder to lend apartments in the building out on Airbnb. * As far as affordable places for family, I've always dissuaded them from renting from a largely unregulated market where quality can be difficult to determine in advance and the pitfalls of renting something unsavory could be bedbugs or worse. I live in a neighborhood well served by fairly affordable hotels nearby (in Manhattan!) which can be price competitive with Airbnb, and significantly more regulated. I view this as a positive - this law did not change anyone's ability to rent out a bedroom in an apartment or house that they are also staying in, and stays over 30 days are still legal. It feels like a win/win to me.

danielweber 10y ago
> My LL just put in new electronic locks in on my building to make sure it was significantly harder to lend apartments in the building out on Airbnb. Can you explain this part? What do the electronic locks do to discourage lending?
- goatsi 10y ago
  I would imagine that it uses a keyfob system that is harder to duplicate than just getting a key cut and easier to revoke access to than changing a lock. See this news story for an example of this type of lock in action: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/airbnb-guest-locked-out-of-suite-by-strata-1.3786500 http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/airbnb-guest-...
- manacit 10y ago
  Like goatsi said below, it makes it much harder to duplicate than a metal key, and tracks the times and fob IDs of everyone using it to get in the building. Instead of being able to run to Home Depot and get a key copy for $3 that you can hand out to whomever you're lending the apartment to, you'd need to copy your fob or lend them yours. This makes it fairly trivial to lock a single fob out, and there are timestamps that can be corroborated with the camera in the building lobby, to see who was using the fob to get into the building. Of course, cursory Googling when they were handed out shows that it's not that difficult to clone the model of key they handed out, but it's still a big 'win' over everyone having the same key.

CPLX 10y ago

Well technically they didn't lose these things, they were already illegal.

vkou 10y ago

> The ability to rent out their home when they go away for a long weekend or take a couple weeks of vacation somewhere, most likely financing a good portion of their rent or vacation. They never had it. Rentals under 30 days have always been illegal in NYC. > Affordable ways for family to visit, especially nearby to where they live... Out of town friends and family aren't renters. I'd love it if my neighbours would subsidize my out-of-country family's travel, too, but for some reason, this doesn't seem to be their top priority. > What many renters would really celebrate... Yes, they would celebrate that very much. In the meantime, every little bit helps.