Airbnb owners fined after shootout
The owners of an illegal vacation rental in Bernal Heights where a gunbattle erupted last year have agreed to pay $185,000 in civil penalties and halt short-term rentals for five years, San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera said Tuesday.
Eric M. Rogers and Anshu Singh converted 212 Banks St. into a two-unit building without permits and then illegally rented it to tourists for months via Airbnb and HomeAway/ VRBO, Herrera’s office said. Meanwhile, the couple lived in Bali, Indonesia, and hired other people to manage rentals of the two units, which went for rates that sometimes exceeded $700 a night. San Francisco requires that vacation rental hosts live in their properties most of the year.
The couple’s attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Herrera said Rogers and Singh reaped about $160,000 by renting to travelers from July 2016 until late October 2017. In a settlement approved by a San Francisco Superior Court judge Tuesday, the couple agreed to forfeit that, plus pay a $25,000 penalty. They must bring the property into code compliance, and have a 10-year injunction against illegal behavior on the property.
In October 2016, Rogers applied for the city’s required vacation-rental permit, stating that he lived in the house at least nine months of the year. The Office of Short-Term Rentals determined that he had lied — under penalty of perjury — and denied the application, also noting that the couple lacked a business registration certificate and had illegally added a kitch-
en to their property. However, the rentals continued unabated, Herrera said.
In October 2017, shortterm renters hosted a party at 212 Banks St. that “devolved into a massive shootout,” Herrera’s office said. “The gunfire sent dozens of partygoers fleeing through the neighborhood, running from rooftop to rooftop and trespassing through residents’ backyards. Police recovered more than 100 bullets and shell casings from the gunfight. Bullets pierced neighbors’ homes, damaging windows, doors and, in one house, the living room. Eighteen parked cars were damaged by gunfire.”
One person was wounded in the gunfire. Ten weeks later, a neighbor found a discarded gun in his yard, picked it up and accidentally shot his hand.
Local website Bernalwood reported at the time that police said the battle was between two rival gangs and that witnesses were refusing to cooperate with an investigation. The San Francisco Police Department did not immediately respond to a query about whether they had made any arrests in the case.
Airbnb, which declined to comment, kicked the couple off its website and banned the guest, as well as cooperating with law enforcement, it said at the time of the incident.
Illegal vacation rentals are becoming rarer in San Francisco since January, when Airbnb and Home Away / VRBO jettisoned all unregistered hosts under an agreement with the city.