Airbnb host loses home
Cancer-stricken ‘profiteer,’ 69, booted by court
An appeals court didn’t buy a rent-stabilized tenant’s claim that the 93 guests who paid to stay in her Greenwich Village two-bedroom were actually roommates — and now the woman has been booted from her home.
A lower-court judge in 2015 had ruled that a jury should weigh tenant Linda Lipetz’s defense — considering that she’d only begun the scheme after losing her job and being diagnosed with cancer. Lipetz, 69, was allowed to stay in her home of 40 years at 39 Fifth Ave. while landlord Shari Lynn Goldstein appealed that ruling.
But on Tuesday, a majority of judges in Manhattan’s Appellate Division found that Lipetz was improperly trying to use a loophole in a law preventing rent-stabilized tenants from profiting excessively off their units.
Under state law, tenants can sublet to roommates, but only at a 10 percent markup from their rent.
Lipetz was paying $1,758 a month, or $57 a day, while charging Airbnb guests $95 a night for individuals and $128 for couples, according to court papers.
“In our view, subletting of an apartment at an excessive rental rate for 338 days over a year and half . . . constitutes unlawful profiteering,” Judge Peter Tom wrote for the majority.
Tom found that Lipetz took in $33,000 from Airbnb guests. After paying her yearly $21,000 rent, she pocketed about $12,000 “in financial profits unavailable to her landlord.”
Two dissenting judges argued that Lipetz should get a break because of her age and because she had lost her job while battling cancer.
“I am devastated, absolutely devastated,” Lipetz told The Post.
She plans to appeal to the state’s highest court.
The landlord’s lawyer, Howard Grun, applauded the ruling.
“It puts to rest the whole notion that these transient, shortterm Airbnb guests are roommates,” Grun said.
An Airbnb spokesman said, “We believe that regulations should be in place that prevent profiteering off rent-stabilized units while allowing New Yorkers to share their own homes to pay their rent.”