Landlord Fined $6,200 for Tenant’s Unlawful Short-Term Sublets of Apartment

DOB issued five violation notices to landlord after inspection following a complaint of transient use of one apartment in the building. DOB’s inspector found that a Class “A” apartment was used as a transient hostel. Seven guests were present at the time of inspection. The additional violations cited failure to maintain the building in a code-compliant manner based on lack of automatic sprinklers, failure to provide the number of required means of egress for transient use, failure to provide a fire alarm system for transient use, and occupant load violations based on having four beds in one room housing guests for short-term stay.

Landlord argued that it had no knowledge of the apartment’s transient use, didn’t consent to the use, and shouldn’t be responsible for tenant’s acts. Landlord said that tenant should have been issued the violation notices instead. Tenant claimed that she had now stopped the short-term rentals, although landlord had served her with a notice to cure and notice of lease termination.

The ALJ ruled against landlord and fined it $6,200. Landlord appealed and lost. Ignorance of the violations wasn’t a defense, because it was landlord’s responsibility to maintain the building and its facilities in a safe and code-compliant manner. Landlord can’t shift that responsibility to tenant. Landlord is ultimately responsible, even if tenants caused the violating conditions and it had no knowledge of tenants’ actions. A sworn statement by tenant that she had stopped using Airbnb for short-term rentals of the apartment was insufficient to prove that the unlawful transient use of the apartment had stopped. 

884 Riverside LP: ECB App. No. 1600396 (6/30/16) [5-pg. doc.]