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Comment by bradleyjg | Hacker News Reader

The problem we're discussing here is easily fixed by making short-term rentals in apartment and condo buildings unlawful

This is already the case in NYC. What's needed is enforcement.

Perhaps through the use of a RICO action with wire fraud predicates against Airbnb and its principals. Taking money in exchange for a room that the company knows or should know is not legally available may well constitute "obtaining money or property by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises, or omitted facts."

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As a New Yorker who has recently considered buying an apartment in Queens, short-term rental prohibition isn't a law I want.

A NYC apartment would be my biggest financial commitment, and not having help with the mortgage from a subleter when I elect to travel at any point over the next 30 years is a crippling constraint.

As I said it is already the law+. See MDL, Article 1, Sections 4-7, 4-8.

If that means that it no longer makes sense for you to buy an apartment then you probably shouldn't buy an apartment. I certainly wouldn't hold my breath on it being repealed. The law was recently amended to make advertising an illegal apartment rental itself illegal and subject to a fine.

+There is an exception if you are renting out only part of an apartment and you or a long term tenant will be present. Also, the situation for buildings with three or fewer units is more complicated.

Why should your neighbors help shoulder the cost of your financing your vacations with short-term renters?

How would they be?

By bearing the negative externalities of your short term rental? I lived above an NYC airbnb for a while, and of course it was always a noisy partying crew. Which of course makes sense because it's people on holiday/vacation renting on airbnb! But it's pretty disruptive to someone renting the next apartment who isn't on vacation.

What if you get a noisy neighbor who isn't an AirBnB guest, but lives there permanently? That seems worse. Do you have no recourse in that case?

Why wouldn't you have recourse in that case?

Because it's not illegal to make noise in your apartment? Noise ordinances typically have a high threshold and are a pain to get enforced, except maybe in really obvious cases like college-style parties.

Maybe you don't have a ton of legal recourse, but since they are a semi permanent neighbor you can just talk to them. Add opposed to someone that's just there for the weekend.

If someone is inconsiderate enough to make excessive noise on a sustained basis, why would they respond well to being confronted about it?

Remember, community and interaction among neighbors is maximized the countryside, high in sprawl, and barely existent in mid-rises, and zero in high-rises. The more your neighbors influence your quality of life, the less socially acceptable it is to interact with them (and the less likely you are to see them, since the primary means of interacting with neighbors is to spend time in your yard). There's not going to be a basis of mutual respect in a noisy urban apartment building like there would be on a block of single-family homes.

By paying higher rents because short term lets (at least on the airbnb model) inflate the rental market?

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