Landlord That Sublet to Corporate Residence Provider Responsible for Illegal Rentals

DOB issued three violation notices to landlord in connection with illegal conversion of a permanent dwelling to transient use, failure to maintain a premises in a code-compliant manner, and failure to install a fire alarm system. The ALJ dismissed the violations, and DOB appealed.

ECB ruled for DOB and fined landlord $5,000. Landlord had argued that a sublandlord, Corporate Habitat, had agreed to lease the subject apartment for 30 consecutive days or more. But the applicable code provisions charge landlord with responsibility for maintaining the building in a code-compliant manner at all times. So landlord can't shift responsibility onto a third party via private contract.

ECB also disagreed with the ALJ, who found that DOB didn't prove landlord's actual or constructive knowledge of transient occupancy in its building. Landlord had the opportunity through reasonable diligence to check Airbnb profiles, advertisements, user reviews, photos, and similar sites. If landlord failed to hire competent building management to address issues of transient occupancy, then landlord exercised no oversight and permitted the illegal transient use. Landlord also provided no proof of any monitoring of its building to refute DOB's claim that it permitted the unlawful occupancy.

Landlord did correct the violations, so mitigated penalties were imposed.

DOB v. PVM Acquisition Owner LLC: ECB App. No. 2000427 (6/18/20) [5-pg. doc.]