Airbnb host is $lapped

‘City targeted me’

A disabled Airbnb host says the city targeted him for testifying against a City Council bill that would crack down on home-sharing services.

Skip Karol (inset), 58, says he faces up to $32,000 in fines after city inspectors visited his two-family Brooklyn house the week after he spoke against the proposal at a June 26 hearing.

“I spoke out and somebody didn’t like what I said, so they’re trying to make a point,” said Karol, who has epilepsy and severe osteoporosis.

Inspectors with the Sheriff ’s Office, FDNY and Department of Buildings arrived at his Sunset Park door Thursday, Karol said, looking into a June 28 complaint that a basement with a boiler was used “for Airbnb.”

The inspectors “frightened” Karol’s guests from Brazil who were renting a room, he said. They then hit Karol with four summonses, with fines ranging from $6,000 to $8,000 apiece, for illegally housing “transient” people and other code violations.

“To stop Airbnb, they targeted me,” Karol said.

Karol’s listings on Airbnb are illegal because he offers basement stays and allows too many renters, according to the Mayor’s Office.

The Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement, the multiagency unit that enforces short-term rental rules, interviewed a guest who was paying Karol about $100 a night to rent the basement apartment, spokeswoman Alacia Lauer said.

Karol told council members at the June hearing that he’d have to move out without the extra money from Airbnb.

“I want to live my life in the only home I know,” he testified.

The bill that Karol testified against would force Airbnb to hand over addresses of all their listings to the Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement. The legislation is meant to purge the city of illegal Airbnb listings, particularly at rent-regulated or -stabilized units.