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Also since you are now renting your residence you probably need to file business taxes since you have turned your home into a business. So include tax evasion into this equation as well.
You do realize that you are running an illegal hotel out of a property that you do not own, exposing the landlord and other tenants to risk from unscreened people who do not have the right to occupy an apartment in the building because you do not have the right to temporarily assign your tenancy for profit. Unless you conduct a full and thorough background investigation, you are not able to determine whether or not someone poses a risk to the property or other tenants, nor would any landlord want your "feeling" to be a criteria by which one should be allowed to temporarily live in their building. It's not terribly difficult for a private investigator to find out what you are up to, since you advertise on a public website. And, there have been investigators who find people who illegally sublet for many years, so it's not a phenomenon of AirBnB and other similar sites.
If you own your own single-family or two-family home, the hotel law does not apply because the building has to have three or more units to qualify, IIRC. You can legally rent a room in your residence and not run afoul of the hotel law, provided that you are in residence during the entire tenancy of your transient visitor. You still have to declare the income from the use of a room by transient visitors, of course, but that is not an illegal hotel use.
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All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.
~William Shakespeare (As You Like It Act II, Scene VII)
If you own your own single-family or two-family home, the hotel law does not apply because the building has to have three or more units to qualify, IIRC. You can legally rent a room in your residence and not run afoul of the hotel law, provided that you are in residence during the entire tenancy of your transient visitor.
Outside of NYC, this depends on the zoning laws of your local municipality.
You rent & do not own. I am sure somewhere in your lease say this in some language. If it is rent stabilized I hope the law goes after these people!! If you rent it should be your primary residence. A rental is your landlords investment not yours. If caught & you get in trouble it could be on your permanent record & make it impossible to get a landlord to ever agree to rent to you again. How would you feel if you owned a property & trusted tenant only to have them use it like that? If they paid you say $1000 month in rent what would you do if you found out you tenant that you had a lease with rented it out for 3x as much to strangers & did not live there.
AirBnB needs better regulation. Really it is the hands of landlords to protect themselves anyway so if it happening right under them & the LL does not see it then they are not managing their property very well anyway. I rented out a home I OWNED, but was not an co-op or condo so did not have to worry about those rules at all. If I was renting I would check on it very often.
Airbnb's status went before City Council this week, and also the state is drafting up regulations.
Some landlords don't mind Airbnb (just as some don't mind sublets) and some landlords would mind very much.
So a lot of this is also going to depend on the building where one lives.
Also since you are now renting your residence you probably need to file business taxes since you have turned your home into a business. So include tax evasion into this equation as well.
The IRS will not be lenient on you when caught.
Oh with Airbnb you have no choice but to file taxes. The tenants pay Airbnb, who pays the subletter by wire, PayPal, or some other electronic transfer. Old school sublets you could have them pay you in cash, and avoid taxes.
In a way Airbnb is better as it leaves an electronic trail, forcing people to pay taxes.
Airbnb isn't going to go away, I ultimately agree with the OP. And different landlords have very different opinions on the matter.
Suppose someone got fired from their job and needed extra money to live off while they were looking for a new job. Would you want them to go homeless?
There's a lot of fake morality here, as I doubt anyone of you would be willing to take your own money to support someone who needed the extra money. If it's not going on in your building, you have no say in what is tolerated on in another building.
Of course. You can also deal drugs out of your apartment or run a brothel to supplement your income. Just because the government may not be able to stop you does not make it legal or right.
Airbnb is legal.
The hotels created this issue in the first place. It costs hundreds of dollars per night to rent a hotel room in a major city. The marketplace found a way around this by manifesting in the form of Airbnb.
If the city doesn't want this to happen it will have to build many more hotels, to the point where staying in a hotel is a cheap as Airbnb.
Airbnb is just tacky and illegal. How that company is still functioning is beyond me.
It's been made perfectly legal in some cities and states. The company has a 10 billion dollar valuation and very good lawyers and lobbyists.
In short, money talks and walks.
The idiots from the hotels were so blind they didn't take down Airbnb when it was a startup. Now it's grown wealthy and powerful and they cannot stop it.
What will end up happening is that different locations will simply regulate Airbnb.
Last edited by bmwguydc; 01-23-2015 at 10:54 AM..
Reason: Inappropriate language: please do not circumvent the language filter
It's been made perfectly legal in some cities and states. The company has a 10 billion dollar valuation and very good lawyers and lobbyists.
In short, money talks and walks.
The idiots from the hotels were so blind they didn't take down Airbnb when it was a startup. Now it's grown wealthy and powerful and they cannot stop it.
What will end up happening is that different locations will simply regulate Airbnb.
EVERYTHING with a website these days has a gazillion dollar "valuation". That means absolutely nothing anymore.
We stopped "valuating" companies on their true merits since the late '90s.
Last edited by bmwguydc; 01-23-2015 at 10:54 AM..
Reason: Edited quoted text
The hotels created this issue in the first place. It costs hundreds of dollars per night to rent a hotel room in a major city. The marketplace found a way around this by manifesting in the form of Airbnb.
If the city doesn't want this to happen it will have to build many more hotels, to the point where staying in a hotel is a cheap as Airbnb.
One could say the same for sex.
The Church created this "issue" in the first place. It cost a fortune for a man to court, marry, and keep a woman. The marketplace found a way around this for many men by manifesting in the form of -- prostitution.
The Church created this "issue" in the first place. It cost a fortune for a man to court, marry, and keep a woman. The marketplace found a way around this for many men by manifesting in the form of -- prostitution.
Does that make it "legal" for everyone? No.
The sex industry is legal to a degree. It manifests in other forms besides prostitution. Pornography, strippers (strip clubs are legal) are regulated and taxed.
Drugs too are legal to a degree. Alcohol is legal and regulated, and many other drugs can be obtained by prescription from the doctor. Some states and countries have legalized marijuana. Governments realize they cannot totally ban certain things, but they can control and regulate it. Banning something entirely creates a black market and funds organized crime, while legalizing it create new tax revenues for the government.
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