The city wants to break down doors of illegal Airbnbs – Queens judge says, ‘no’
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A Flushing apartment allegedly being listed illegally on Airbnb. A Queens judge this week denied the city’s request to send sheriffs to take down the door of the home to enforce its short-term rental rules. Screenshot via Airbnb
By Ryan Schwach
A Queens judge this week rejected the city’s request to send the sheriff to break down the doors of two Flushing homes allegedly being rented as illegal Airbnbs.
On at least four separate occasions in Queens alone in the last eight months, city attorneys have sought warrants to inspect residences they believe are Airbnbs. Their requests, including the two cases ruled on this week, include provisions to allow the New York City sheriff to forcibly enter the home by dismantling its doors. All four times, the city’s request for forced entry has been denied.
In the four Queens cases, which were in Jamaica, Queensboro Hill and Flushing, city inspectors from the Department of Buildings, FDNY and the sheriff's office had attempted to first inspect the premises but were denied entry by either rental occupants or the owner.
After “all other noninvasive options” had been exhausted, the city requested a judge’s permission to bust down the homes’ doors to determine once and for all whether or not the owners of the buildings were illegally renting them out to Airbnb guests.
In all four cases, Queens Supreme Court Civil Term Judge Tracy Catapano-Fox rejected the city’s request.
On Wednesday, Catapano-Fox denied the city’s request for a forcible entry warrant for two adjoining-properties on 163rd Street in East Flushing despite the Appellate Court overturning her previous two rulings.
The city’s plea to the judge comes as Mayor Eric Adams has amped up enforcement of illegal short-term rentals in the five boroughs.
Local Law 18, which was enacted in 2022 but has yet to be robustly enforced, requires Airbnb hosts to register rentals with a city database before being allowed to collect rental payments. To enforce the law, the city will soon begin blocking payments of unregistered rentals. The law builds on a city rule that has been on the books for decades and which bans any rentals shorter than 30-days, but was rarely enforced.
Local Law 18 was recently challenged in court by Airbnb, which alleged that the statute violates previous agreements between the city and app-based company, Crain’s New York Business reported. The company also said that it would potentially have to cancel thousands of rentals.
Of the law, an attorney for Airbnb told Crain’s that “New York City will be the Grinch who stole summer.”
However, proponents of the law argue that a majority of illegal rentals are kept in a perpetual state of short-term rental, reducing the city’s overall rental stock during the city’s housing crisis.
“Safe, stable, and affordable housing is fundamental to a prosperous city, so we will not allow bad actors to deplete our housing stock and undermine our hospitality sector," said Adams last July.
In her Sutphin Avenue courtroom, Catapano-Fox, the former head of the Civilian Complaint Review Board, called the city’s requests for forcible entry “concerning.”
The judge told the city’s attorney that it was her role to protect New Yorkers from unnecessary searches despite the city’s stated desire to protect individuals by making sure fire codes and other regulations are being followed.
She argued that the warrants requested by the city would be executed while regular, law-abiding individuals are staying in the short-term rentals, and that the city shouldn’t be given the ability to “break in” in order to enforce civil penalties on illegal short-term rentals.
“I am a Civil Court judge being asked to let the city break into the house of its residents only to determine if it's an Airbnb,” said Catapano-Fox, who ultimately signed the warrant with the exclusion of the “forcible entry” request.
The city’s lawyer, Marty Nagel, painted the forcible entry as a last resort. City investigators had on several occasions attempted to gain access to the homes through less aggressive means, he said.
The city had also issued several summonses to the owner after anonymous 311 calls were made about the building in July 2020 and December 2021.
According to Nagel, there were a number of attempts made by members of the Department of Buildings’ Quality of Life unit to enter the homes. During one such attempt, an inspector asked the owner if they could enter only to be told by the owner that “everything is legal.”
Nagel argued that renters who stayed in the location were facing “immediate danger,” because the buildings are not up to code.
Catapano-Fox argued in return that if the danger was as pressing as the city argued it was, they should have come to the court requesting a warrant sooner, noting the three-year stretch that had elapsed since the first 311 complaint about the property was made.
Nagel declined to comment further after the court proceedings, and directed the Eagle to City Hall and the city’s Law Department.
A spokesperson for the mayor said that the kind of enforcement request made in the Queens court this week is nothing new, and not related to the city’s new regulations.
The spokesperson also said that the forcible entry warrants are only requested after other attempts have been made.
The spokesperson declined to comment specifically on the two cases Catapano-Fox heard this week.
The Eagle reached out to Qing Lin, the person listed as the owner of the rentals, via Airbnb and an individual listed as a “co-host” of the property declined to comment.
Currently, there is an Airbnb listing for one of the apartments in Qing’s name, asking $150 a night to rent the two bedroom apartment. Previous guests have given the listing a 4.63 out of 5 star rating.
“Nice place,” one reviewer said. “Had a bit of an issue at the beginning to get into the house but the host was very helpful and we got in quickly.”
