Chelsea Landlord Sued By City For Running Illegal Airbnb Hotel

CHELSEA, NY — New York City officials sued a Chelsea landlord Monday for turning his rent-stabilized building into an illegal Airbnb hotel. The landlord, Dr. Philip Baldeo, was hosting transient guests in six of the nine units in the four-story walkup at 156 W. 15th St. as recently as September 2017, officials alleged in the lawsuit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court.

Baldeo and his management company, 156 West 15th Street Chelsea LLC, profited from Airbnb listings as the building's apartments fell out of rent stabilization and rents in the neighborhood skyrocketed, the lawsuit alleges.

The suit by Mayor Bill de Blasio's Office of Special Enforcement comes on top of $11,000 in fines and more than two dozen building violations slapped on the property, officials said.

"If a landlord persists in illegal activity despite complaints from residents and violations from the City, then we will elevate our response to safeguard its rent-stabilized housing stock and protect New Yorkers and visitors from the dangers of illegal hotels," Christian Klossner, executive director of the Office of Special Enforcement, said in a statement.

The suit names Baldeo, his company and building manager Miguel Guzman as defendants. Baldeo could not be reached at phone numbers listed for his medical office or home in Richmond Hill. Contact information for Guzman was not publicly available online.

A 2016 state law banned renting apartments for less than 30 days if the tenant is not present. The law targeted Airbnb and other online services that some advocates said landlords were using to profit.

Baldeo's Airbnb operation gradually expanded, city officials said. Two of the nine apartments were being rented illegally in August 2014, but investigators found six illegal rentals in September, the Office of Special Enforcement said.

Six of the building's apartments were rent-stabilized when Baldeo took over the building in 2013, but now none are registered as rent-stabilized, the lawsuit says.

The scheme persisted even as officials received 13 illegal hotel complaints against the building starting in 2014, city officials said. Other violations there include 23 fire violations, three criminal summonses and one advertising summons.

The lawsuit doesn't say how much money Baldeo and his firm allegedly made from the rentals. But it cites reports that partially blame housing shortages in Chelsea and Hell's Kitchen on Airbnb rentals. The average Airbnb listing in those areas takes in $678 more each month — or $8,000 each year — than the median monthly rent, according to a 2016 study commissioned by Housing Conservation Coordinators, a local nonprofit group.

The case against Baldeo is the city's 11th lawsuit against landlords allegedly running illegal hotels. One landlord paid a $1.2 million settlement in such a case last month, the city's largest ever, the Office of Special Enforcement said.

(Lead image: The city has accused the landlord of this red brick building at 156 W. 15th St. for turning rent-stabilized apartments into illegal Airbnb rentals. Image from Google Maps)