4 ms·

This stuff is incredibly common in short term rental market. You are scraping the bottom of the barrel on landlord scruples. There was a recent fire in a summ

This stuff is incredibly common in short term rental market. You are scraping the bottom of the barrel on landlord scruples. There was a recent fire in a summer vacation town popular with NYers. The town requires summer short term rental landlords to get a permit & inspection. The landlord did not get one. The landlord also had sketchy kitchen wiring that was probably some sort of DIY and not up to code. The landlord had removed batteries and hardwiring from 3 smoke detectors. These are the kind of things the inspector would have found immediately. A family visiting from out of state lost 2 of their 3 children in this fire. Apps like AirBnB create the facade of officialness on what are instead very sketchy markets. Family probably thought they were doing the right thing going through an app and the landlord must be verified and more "legit". Being from out of state they wouldn't know the intricacies of local town permit&inspection requirements and how to check if the landlord has one, etc. Likewise in my condo in NYC, we had one particular owner who was trying to use their unit as an Airbnb. Regardless of the local laws which were tightening up at the time, our condo expressly forbid short term rentals, and had language around minimum length of stay and lease approval requirements. It only stopped when we started fining them $1000 per incident. Stuff like this matters because you buy a condo to live in it and don't expect the unit on the other side of your bedroom wall to essentially be a hotel room with new neighbors every 3 days, staying up all hours (vacation, yay), dragging suitcases in&out at odd hours multiple times per week.. forever. The building itself takes on a lot more wear & tear, and they put a burden on staff as they think the building porter&doorman are there for them like a hotel concierge and front desk.

nathanaldensr 4y ago
That is horrible. Let's just call it what it is: Airbnb are professional liars who use disgusting legal tactics like forced arbitration to sweep things under the carpet--all to make quarterly numbers.
tallanvor 4y ago
I'm on the board of the Norwegian equivalent of a condo association, and I wish we could fine an owner every time we got complaints from other residents! Unfortunately the laws still have loopholes that make it very hard for us to hold him accountable as long as he claims to actually be living there. --In Norway you have to have a primary residence registered, and you're allowed to rent out spare rooms in your primary residence, even on short-term sites. We'd basically have to spend a lot of money to have a 3rd party come knocking on the door every night for several months to prove whether or not he's really living there so that we can take proper action.
- smachiz 4y ago
  Why does it have to be a third party? Can't it just be someone on the board who lives in the building? Couldn't you just throw some security cams up at the entrances and just track coming and going and total stay time? You'd only have to review footage after a reasonable suspicion.
stickfigure 4y ago
> our condo expressly forbid short term rentals, and had language around minimum length of stay and lease approval requirements. It only stopped when we started fining them $1000 per incident. At least this part sounds like the system working correctly?
- nrmitchi 4y ago
  A system, but not AirBNBs system.
  - stickfigure 4y ago
    It's unreasonable to expect AirBNB to enforce your HOA rules. That's a private contract between you and your neighbors.
    - michaelmrose 4y ago
      Basically even if it's not expressly forbidden it's an obvious misuse in pretty much any multi family dwelling. If your lease doesn't forbid you from keeping cows indoors it doesn't mean your not an asshole for keeping cows in your apartment.
      - Dylan16807 4y ago
        As long as it's not damaging anything, why should I care about someone having cows? Damage is obviously a problem and not the issue at hand.
        steveBK123 4y ago
        "As long as it's not damaging anything, why should I care about someone having cows?" Noise, smells, sanitation, etc
        Dylan16807 4y ago
        If your floor isn't being damaged by cow, it's probably not very loud, is it? Same for whether it's sanitary enough to not be causing any damage. And realistically I'm picturing roughly one cow would fit.

nathanaldensr 4y ago

That is horrible. Let's just call it what it is: Airbnb are professional liars who use disgusting legal tactics like forced arbitration to sweep things under the carpet--all to make quarterly numbers.

tallanvor 4y ago

I'm on the board of the Norwegian equivalent of a condo association, and I wish we could fine an owner every time we got complaints from other residents! Unfortunately the laws still have loopholes that make it very hard for us to hold him accountable as long as he claims to actually be living there. --In Norway you have to have a primary residence registered, and you're allowed to rent out spare rooms in your primary residence, even on short-term sites. We'd basically have to spend a lot of money to have a 3rd party come knocking on the door every night for several months to prove whether or not he's really living there so that we can take proper action.

smachiz 4y ago
Why does it have to be a third party? Can't it just be someone on the board who lives in the building? Couldn't you just throw some security cams up at the entrances and just track coming and going and total stay time? You'd only have to review footage after a reasonable suspicion.

stickfigure 4y ago

> our condo expressly forbid short term rentals, and had language around minimum length of stay and lease approval requirements. It only stopped when we started fining them $1000 per incident. At least this part sounds like the system working correctly?

nrmitchi 4y ago
A system, but not AirBNBs system.
- stickfigure 4y ago
  It's unreasonable to expect AirBNB to enforce your HOA rules. That's a private contract between you and your neighbors.
  - michaelmrose 4y ago
    Basically even if it's not expressly forbidden it's an obvious misuse in pretty much any multi family dwelling. If your lease doesn't forbid you from keeping cows indoors it doesn't mean your not an asshole for keeping cows in your apartment.
    - Dylan16807 4y ago
      As long as it's not damaging anything, why should I care about someone having cows? Damage is obviously a problem and not the issue at hand.
      - steveBK123 4y ago
        "As long as it's not damaging anything, why should I care about someone having cows?" Noise, smells, sanitation, etc
        Dylan16807 4y ago
        If your floor isn't being damaged by cow, it's probably not very loud, is it? Same for whether it's sanitary enough to not be causing any damage. And realistically I'm picturing roughly one cow would fit.