A New York City landlord is being sued for illegally turning rent-stabilized apartments into short-term hotel rooms.
National Today reports the city filed a lawsuit against Mark David Militana, who owns two brownstone buildings on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The two buildings have a combined total of 18 units, and Militana illegally made 11 of the units available as $280 per night hotel rooms with amenities that were not provided to his rent-stabilized tenants. Militana advertised the units on Airbnb and a website he created, earning more than $550,000 before his actions were uncovered.
Militana ran afoul of a local law that requires short-term rentals to be registered with the city. In the lawsuit, the city is seeking the appointment of a receiver who would return the units into rent-stabilized apartments.
“Rent-stabilized apartments are critical to our affordable housing stock. This person chose to maximize his profit to the detriment of New Yorkers,” said Christian Klossner, executive director of the Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement. “Most importantly, we want to get these units back into the rent-stabilized housing stock and get tenants back into them.”
