Under the new restrictions, short-term renters will need to register with the city and must be present in the home for the duration of the rental

Under the new restrictions, short-term renters will need to register with the city and must be present in the home for the duration of the rental

Home-sharing company Airbnb said it had to stop accepting some reservations in New York City after new regulations on short-term rentals went into effect.

The new rules are intended to effectively end a free-for-all in which landlords and residents have been renting out their apartments by the week or the night to tourists or others in the city for short stays. Advocates say the practice has driven a rise in demand for housing in already scarce neighbourhoods in the city.

Under the new system, rentals shorter than 30 days are only allowed if hosts register with the city. Hosts must also commit to being physically present in the home for the duration of the rental, sharing living quarters with their guest. More than two guests at a time are not allowed, either, meaning families are effectively barred.

  • merridewEnglish
    31·
    1 year ago

    In this specific instance, I suspect it is because there is every indication that the basement room rented by OP was not, in fact, a fully self contained suite within a house, but was a guest room.

    How do you physically get into these “basement suites” in your part of the world? When I lived in a townhouse, access to the cellar was via a door in the middle of the property leading off the kitchen. There would be no practical way to split the cellar off from the main property as a separate dwelling. But having guests sleep down there every so often was no big deal.

    • SatansMaggotyCumFart@lemmy.world
      24·
      1 year ago

      Some are walk out basements and have their own ground level entry, some are a separate door and other are a door in the middle of shared living space.

      • merridewEnglish
        31·
        1 year ago

        Interesting. Here, when conversions happen to make cellars into self-contained units, I’d argue they are frequently only suitable for short term lets, on the basis that no-one should have to live like that. In converting properties whose lower ground floors were never meant to be used for residential purposes into housing, we get stuff like this.

        Rental Opportunity of the Week: A Remodelled Crypt, for Goths Your own windowless basement in London Bridge, for just £2,000 a month.

        https://www.vice.com/en/article/akz9ze/rental-opportunity-london-bridge-basement

        • SatansMaggotyCumFart@lemmy.world
          13·
          1 year ago

          It’s brutal but what if you have a choice of that or being homeless?

          Now if that’s being used as a hotel and your only choice left is to be homeless?

          There’s so many more problems then just airbnb but it’s not helping either.

          • merridewEnglish
            11·
            1 year ago

            It goes for £2000 a month ($2500) and is in Zone 1, a 25 minute stroll from the London Stock Exchange. You aren’t going homeless if you have £2000 a month to spend on rent, and Zone 2 is one stop away on the Jubilee line. You’re moving to Zone 2/3, or moving into a flatshare. Or out of London.

            Given the location, pricing and finish I suspect it’s more likely to be used as a pied a terre – a second (weekday) home – for someone in the City.

              • merridewEnglish
                11·
                1 year ago

                Correct. Well, not all the work week. One person will sleep in it Monday-Thursday. Maybe Friday if it’s a heavy one.

                ETA: Rest of the family will be living in a separate house outside the Home Counties where the schools are better.