On January 9, 2022, New York City adopted Local Law 18, also known as the Short-Term Rental Registration Law. The law (1) requires short-term rental hosts to register with the Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement (OSE), and (2) prohibits booking service platforms (i.e. Air BNB, VRBO, etc.) from processing transactions for unregistered short-term rentals. Significantly, Local Law 18 does not change the underlying rules governing short-term rentals. In buildings with three or more units, it remains illegal to rent housing for fewer than 30 days if the owner or lease-holder is not present during the entire rental period.

Fines for hosts who break the rules would range from $1,000 to the lesser of $5,000 or three times revenue from illegal rentals. Fines for the booking-service platforms would be limited to the higher of $1,500 or the total fees collected from illegal transactions.

The Short-Term Rental Registration Law also requires OSE to maintain a “Prohibited Buildings” list. This list is comprised of buildings where short-term rentals are prohibited, either by the law (such as NYCHA or entire rent-regulated buildings) or by express prohibitions contained in tenant leases and occupancy agreements for the building. Owners can log onto the Prohibited Building List Application at the Short-term Rental Registration Application Portal (Registration Law – OSE (nyc.gov)) to register their buildings / apartments and thereby notify OSE that short-term rentals are prohibited in their building.

When the Short-Term Rental Registration Law was adopted in January 2022, it was noted that OSE would not begin enforcement of the registration law requirements until September 5, 2023. Now that OSE will begin enforcement of the Short-Term Rental Registration Law, Building Owners, Condominium and Cooperative Boards where short-term rentals are expressly prohibited are strongly encouraged, if they haven’t already done so, to register their buildings on the Prohibited Building List.