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How Airbnb Earned Me $20,000 And A Restraining Order From My Landlord

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Re: How Airbnb Earned Me $20,000 And A Restraining Order From My Landlord

#111

Post by parfe »

omonra wrote: post #110
parfe wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Attached to the order was a complete printout of my Airbnb listing and all my reviews, included as evidence I had violated clauses in my lease. (Some leases, I have since learned, have evolved specific language prohibiting tenants from listing their pads on vacation-rental sites such as Airbnb.) I don't buy your innocence here. I've been leasing houses for ~10 years now during and after college. The leases have alway…

I actually find your belligerent attitude annoying. Is that helpful to note? OP would be 'abusing' the property if he were running a crack den. I see no problem with tenants doing whatever they want with the property that they are leasing - as long as no damage is done & neighbors are not troubled.

Then don't get doe-eyed when served with legal papers after signing a lease which explicitly prohibits the behavior.

Re: How Airbnb Earned Me $20,000 And A Restraining Order From My Landlord

#113

Post by uptown »

njharman wrote: post #89
nostromo wrote: post #74

If they're throwing the book at you -- throw it right back. Tell your landlord that you're going to find the hotel closest to your apartment and show up with printouts of their newest illegal competitor: your landlord. It sucks to get the government involved with these disputes, but he opened the door.

Why do you imagine landlord would be illegal competitor? Also, petty retaliation against someone exercising their legal right to enforce contract is morally suspect. Bordering on sociopathic.

NYC Cracks Down on Illegal Hotels

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20120427/HOSPITALITY_TO...

Re: How Airbnb Earned Me $20,000 And A Restraining Order From My Landlord

#114

Post by Spooky23 »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #79
hack_edu wrote: post #7

Again and again, people who use Airbnb to 'hack' the rental market get little sympathy from me when the chickens come to roost. If your landlord was interested in running a tenement home/boarding house/hotel, they wouldn't sign you into a year-long lease. Also, and I know this has been hashed out before on these comment threads but he's grossing $30k a year on the back of his landlord. The landlord has every right to…

I'd concur with the folks who say that 'shocked' is over-reaching. More like surprised the owner went straight for a restraining order rather than having a chat with him at their next meeting. If I were this guy's landlord I'd probably talk first, sue later. But that's just me. It is an interesting (and good) counter story to the one of an owner having their house trashed. That the market is expanding is not surprisi…

NYC is a very tenant-friendly environment.

It's critical to the landlord to have it on the record that he was running a pseudo-roominghouse out of his apartment in order to evict him later.

Otherwise, you get held up in housing court.

Re: How Airbnb Earned Me $20,000 And A Restraining Order From My Landlord

#115

Post by simoncion »

fennecfoxen wrote: post #29
pixelbath wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Breach of contract is generally considered a "big deal" by most lawyers and judges.

Yeah... this is why the San Francisco rental market is a joke. I'm pretty sure the standard SFAA lease is more or less designed to be broken, so that the landlord can toss you out if he needs to (because otherwise the inane rent board regulations would keep him from doing so even in a legitimate situation). On top of that you have landlords who tell you "oh, such and such won't be a problem" even though it says in th…

How would modifying the SFAA lease be legally risky?

In the absence of a written lease, the obligations of a tenant to the landlord are to not cause damage to the landlord's property -beyond ordinary wear and tear-, to pay the landlord the agreed-upon rent in a timely manner, and to not interfere with the quiet enjoyment of others tenants in the building. A landlord's obligation to his tenants are to provide a place that's fit for habitation (There are some things like a functional phone jack in definition of that), ensure that any hazards that may be caused by damage to the building are rectified in a timely manner, and to address any tenant's complaints regarding those two items.

A written lease will generally only add restrictions on one or both parties. Unless explicitly changed by the terms of a written lease both parties are required to live up to the basic obligations that they would be held to in the absence of a written leasing agreement. (And even then, there are certain obligations that a landlord cannot free himself from.)

Edit: Replaced "waive" with "free himself from" in last paragraph. "waive" wasn't the right word to use.

Re: How Airbnb Earned Me $20,000 And A Restraining Order From My Landlord

#116

Post by z0r »

epo wrote: post #103
pajmullaney wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds like the OP was actually an excellent host, and that's worth something on AirBnB. The landlord wouldn't necessarily be able to consistently pull in the kind of high-quality guests by himself.

The OP is a parasite, abusing his landlord's resources for gain. Also, if he hasn't declared his 'rental' income for tax purposes then his problems are only just beginning ...

The OP pays his rent. He abused his landlord's resources in the sense that his lease prohibited his behavior, but there's no need to label him as a parasite. His behavior is no more parasitical than the behavior of the landlord himself. If you have no moral objections to rent, your objection to someone creating value by providing rental liquidity and turning a small profit while doing so is bewildering.

Re: How Airbnb Earned Me $20,000 And A Restraining Order From My Landlord

#117

Post by dagw »

parfe wrote: post #81
chrisdannen wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. This restraining order was the first I had heard from my landlord that he didn't want us airbnb'ing. A phone call and I would have stopped. I knew it was too good to be true.

Attached to the order was a complete printout of my Airbnb listing and all my reviews, included as evidence I had violated clauses in my lease. (Some leases, I have since learned, have evolved specific language prohibiting tenants from listing their pads on vacation-rental sites such as Airbnb.) I don't buy your innocence here. I've been leasing houses for ~10 years now during and after college. The leases have alway…

I don't buy your innocence here.

I don't find it that hard to believe that someone would blindly sign a lease after only quickly skimming over the important bits and then never look at it again. I remember one landlord looking quite surprised when I sat in his office and read all 8 pages of the contract, asked for clarifications on a couple of points and asked for one clause to be changed. It seemed to me that she'd never seen anybody do that before.

Re: How Airbnb Earned Me $20,000 And A Restraining Order From My Landlord

#118

Post by adgar »

omonra wrote: post #110
parfe wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Attached to the order was a complete printout of my Airbnb listing and all my reviews, included as evidence I had violated clauses in my lease. (Some leases, I have since learned, have evolved specific language prohibiting tenants from listing their pads on vacation-rental sites such as Airbnb.) I don't buy your innocence here. I've been leasing houses for ~10 years now during and after college. The leases have alway…

I actually find your belligerent attitude annoying. Is that helpful to note? OP would be 'abusing' the property if he were running a crack den. I see no problem with tenants doing whatever they want with the property that they are leasing - as long as no damage is done & neighbors are not troubled.

> I see no problem with tenants doing whatever they want with the property that they are leasing - as long as no damage is done & neighbors are not troubled.

That's why landlords define "damage [being] done" and "neighbors [being] troubled" in a legally binding contract called a lease, and when you break that contract, you can get evicted.

I strongly suspect most resistance to these basic facts in this thread is typical Airbnb/pg/HN apologia. It certainly isn't coming from anyone who has rented in NYC, that's for sure.

Re: How Airbnb Earned Me $20,000 And A Restraining Order From My Landlord

#119

Post by [deleted] »

tptacek wrote: post #59
nsxwolf wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure I can get "you can't charge other people money to live here" to stick. A no subletting clause is pretty standard where I'm from and it seems to apply here.

In Chicago and iirc San Francisco, landlords are required to accept reasonable subletting arrangements; no-sublet clauses are unenforceable --- but requirements to get the approval of the landlord are.

[deleted]

Re: How Airbnb Earned Me $20,000 And A Restraining Order From My Landlord

#120

Post by infinite8s »

tptacek wrote: post #59
nsxwolf wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure I can get "you can't charge other people money to live here" to stick. A no subletting clause is pretty standard where I'm from and it seems to apply here.

In Chicago and iirc San Francisco, landlords are required to accept reasonable subletting arrangements; no-sublet clauses are unenforceable --- but requirements to get the approval of the landlord are.

New York State as well. And reasonable includes not charging more than the rent being charged by the landlord.
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