Short-term rental reform bill scales back proposed changes for Airbnb hosting rules
The current amendment to Local Law 18 would open the short term registration portal to homeowners and remove the requirement that guests have access to the entire unit in someone's property.
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A new amendment from Council Member Farah Louis is scaling back reforms that would have removed certain barriers for the operations of Airbnb's within New York City.
The current amendment to Local Law 18 would open the short term registration portal to homeowners and remove the requirement that guests have access to the entire unit in someone's property, a move her office says will help build inter-generational wealth for homeowners.
"This issue is particularly crucial for Black and brown homeowners in our city who have historically faced barriers to building and maintaining intergenerational assets," adding that her initial bill was scaled back due to foreseen issues with the city charter.
Airbnb host Jason Mondesir-Casear says he supports the amendment but hopes that future legislation would lift the cap of two-person rentals, and allow landlords to list units that they own, but do not personally occupy.
He has been operating an Airbnb out of his home since 2015, but is currently unable to list the top floor of his property, as he is only an occupant on the first two floors.
The current amendment would allow him to lock access to his personal bedroom and office when tenants visit, but says since his units are on separate floors, it would not be a major change for his operations.
"All short-term rentals are not the same," he said, adding that he understands the concerns of investment driven rentals that could displace homeowners in his Bed-Stuy community.
He hopes more can be done for people who so called small-scale hosts without a total roll-back of protections.
"That's how we got into this problem in the first place investors coming in buying properties they didn't maintain- and no connection to the neighborhood
I am invested in this neighborhood wellbeing, I also live here but for any future legislation we need to make sure investors are not coming in," he said.
But other groups are praising the rollback, including the NYC Hotel Association, which said in a statement to News 12 that, "The legislation in its original form would have opened the door to commercial operators including private-equity groups for converting one- and two-family homes into de-facto hotels without any of the plethora of safety and regulatory requirements such as fire-safety, human-trafficking prevention and licensing for which hotels are ready and responsible partners of NYC."
Currently, no owner of a one- or two-family building can do AirBnB at all, because the initial law (Local Law 18) completely barred anyone outside of a Multiple Dwelling (3 units or more) from participating the registration process.
