NEW YORK CITY ANNOUNCES LAWSUIT AGAINST THREE ILLEGAL HOTEL OPERATORS

Operators generated approximately $1 million from 5,000 visitors at seven buildings

  New York City today announced a lawsuit against a group of illegal hotel operators for using deceptive practices to offer illegal and unsafe short-term rental accommodations in Downtown Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. This is the first lawsuit that the City has filed against illegal hotel operators across multiple boroughs.

For more than three years, the defendants used multiple host accounts with fictitious identities to illegally advertise at least 15 housing units in seven buildings across three boroughs. On several occasions, the defendants also misled guests about the legality of the listings using false addresses and deceptive explanations for guests’ interaction with city inspectors. The Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement has also identified 10 bookings for future dates.

“Illegal hotel operators pose a threat to our housing stock and our neighborhoods. We will use any tools necessary to shut them down and keep New Yorkers safe,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio.

“This is highly commercialized activity where operators are misleading visitors and taking housing units away from New Yorkers—and they’re making a fortune in the process. We’re taking action to preserve the city’s housing stock and to defend visitors’ rights to safe and legal accommodations,” said Christian Klossner, Executive Director of the Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement.

The defendants in the suit include Alexandra Pavlenok, Ekaterina Plotnikova, and Stepan Solovyev. The seven buildings are located at the following addresses:

• 12 John Street, New York
• 40 Water Street, New York
• 151 Stanton Street, New York
• 153 Stanton Street, New York
• 159 Bleecker Street, New York
• 238 Gates Avenue, Brooklyn
• 17-12 Menahan Street, Queens

OSE has taken extensive enforcement action to combat the defendants’ illegal activity, including issuing 80 violations from Department of Buildings inspectors, a partial vacate order based on “imminent danger to life or public safety,” nine fire violation orders, five fire summonses and one fire criminal summons issued to the owners of the buildings. Seven OSE advertising summonses were issued directly to operators.

Brooklyn and Queens have experienced particularly significant growth in short-term rental listings over the past few years. The City’s recently passed information sharing requirements for short-term rental platforms (Local Law 146-A) will give OSE important tools to more effectively and efficiently identify unscrupulous operators and landlords, and help deter these violations.

“Illegal hotel operators like the ones in this suit exacerbate the City’s housing affordability crisis. Shady profiteers like these that use our badly needed housing stock to turn a quick buck are shameful, and this is a perfect example of why we need to maintain enforcement efforts against this harmful behavior. I am thankful that the Office of Special Enforcement is continuing its work to combat this pressing problem. The Council will continue to address this crisis in any way it can as well,” said Council Speaker Corey Johnson.