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NYC Local Law 18 On Short-Term Rentals Takes Effect

By Matthew A. Ulmann
November 01, 2023

On Jan. 9, 2022, the New York City Council passed the Short-Term Rental Registration Law (Local Law 18), which directly impacts the ability of an individual unit owner to rent his or her apartment on a short-term basis, i.e., for a period of less than 30 days. The law took effect on Sept. 5, 2023.

This law now requires all short-term rental hosts to register with the Mayor's Office of Special Enforcement (OSE), which oversees the enforcement of Local Law 18. Although not a de-facto ban on all short-term rentals in NYC, Local Law 18 imposes significant and burdensome requirements on short-term rental hosts, which has already had the intended impact of severely limiting a host's ability to lease his or her apartment on a short-term basis. Under the new law, Booking Services (such as Airbnb, VRBO and booking.com) are prohibited from processing any transactions for an unregistered host.

OSE defines these short-term rental services as a "booking service," which is "any entity that, directly or indirectly (1) provides one or more online, computer or application-based platforms that individually or collectively can be used to (i) list or advertise offers for short-term rentals, and (ii) either accept such offers, or reserve or pay for such rentals; and (2) charges, collects or receives a fee for the use of such a platform or for provision of any service in connection with a short-term rental." A platform is not a "booking service" if it solely lists or advertises offers for short-term rentals but does not have a mechanism to accept the offer or pay for the rental.

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