Landlords Threaten Tenants With PIs, Eviction Over AirBnB

City landlords are used to price-gouging. It’s just that they’re customarily the ones doing it. Now that AirBnB is allowing renters to make money on their places of residence — to act, essentially, as landlords themselves — landlords are scrambling to regain the upper hand.

Landlords are adding riders to leases clearly stating tenants will face eviction if found to be renting their units. They’re adding cameras, hiring private investigators or implementing new lock systems to catch tenants engaging in the practice. …

Karla Saladino, founder of Mirador Real Estate — whose firm’s primary business is to manage exclusive rentals for landlords and management firms — said one landlord she works with was recently slapped with a $40,000 fine when the city found a few Airbnb incidents in his Midtown building.

“Landlords have repeatedly been asking for digital lock systems where you can track activity and who the keys are given out to,” said Saladino, whose firm now offers Airbnb-related research and advice to their clients.

Considering the landlords are on the hook for any shit that goes down in their property, I understand a certain amount of concern on their parts. But since those same city landlords are charging their fellow citizens thousands of dollars a month for the privilege on living on the G train, I understand tenants feeling like the things they can do to recoup some of those extortionate costs are at least somewhat justified.

And look, the plot thickens!

Her firm has also become expert in rooting out “professional tenants” — people who rent units expressly for the purpose of renting them on sites like Airbnb. Some of these professional tenants are real estate brokers, Saladino noted, who enlist the help of clients to sign leases and then split the proceeds.

Landlords vs. brokers is like monsters vs. aliens. I honestly can’t say which side I’d root for. Maybe I’d just invest in popcorn and watch to see how it plays out.

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