A woman who subleased her rent-stabilized apartment in Manhattan’s West Village via Airbnb can be evicted for the arrangement, a state appeals court has ruled in a decision that limits the reach of the company in the country’s most populous city.
Linda Lipetz, who has lived in the two-bedroom apartment since 1973, sublet the unit through the Airbnb website to 93 different customers for 338 days over a period of 18 months beginning in March 2011, at nightly rates of $95 for one person or $120 for two. Though the city’s law governing rent stabilized apartments permits a tenant to charge a 10% premium for an otherwise lawful sublet of a furnishers rent-stabilized apartment, Lipetz, 69, took in nearly twice the lawful charge, the Appellate Division’s First Department found.
Though the court noted Lipetz’ age and health (she was diagnosed with cancer in 2010), the majority rejected her characterization of the guests whom she recruited through Airbnb as roommates and her contention that she received permission from the building’s management to sublet the unit at 39 Fifth Avenue.
Lipetz “exploited the governmentally-conferred privilege of her rent-stabilized tenancy to take finance profits unavailable to the landlord, well in excess of the permissible 10% premium for a furnished apartment,” Justice Peter Tom wrote on behalf of three of his colleagues. “Moreover, [Lipetz’] exploitation of her rent-stabilized leasehold disregarded, not only the right so her landlord, but also the rights of all her fellow permanent residents of the building, whether shareholders or lessees.”
“The other residents did not bargain to share the building where they made their homes with a continuous stream of transient strangers… of unknown character and reputation, drawn to the building from all over the world by Internet advertising,” he added.
Lipetz told The New York Post she is “absolutely devastated” by the ruling, which she plans to appeal.
Eviction premature, says dissent
In a dissent, Justice Ellen Gesmer noted that Lipetz turned to Airbnb to find roommates who might help pay the rent after losing job and undergoing six operations prevented her from working for more than a year.
Noting that Lipetz sublet her apartment through Airbnb for a short time relative to the length of her tenancy, Gesmer urged her colleagues to return the decision to the lower court for resolution of a series of issues, including whether Lipetz notified the building’s management had consented to the arrangement and whether Lipetz’ conduct “rises to the level of profiteering requiring termination of her 43-year tenancy.”
An Airbnb spokesman said the law should “prevent profiteering off rent stabilized units while allowing New Yorkers to share their own homes to pay their rent or medical bills and age in place.”