A friend was telling me of a young woman he knows who’d been struggling to get by in New York and he’d been sort of mentoring. Only she’s spent most of this year traveling in Southeast Asia and South America, “finding herself”.
I wondered what she was living on. Turns out she’s offering her Manhattan apartment on Airbnb and covering its rent with enough left over to fuel her nomadic self-discovery.
I wonder if it’s even legal? Whatever, when there’s something desirable to be sold and people who want to buy it, deals get done; particularly in NYC. A 21st-century lifestyle, to be sure.
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From: hawkse (Jun 28 2013, at 03:33)
This isn't all that uncommon and I've heard plenty such stories while backpacking myself at the turn of the century. Myself, I didn't have the fortune of having an apartment in an attractive enough place so I had to settle for subletting at self cost.
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From: John Cowan (Jun 28 2013, at 04:58)
Subletting is legal in NYC, but for at most two years out of every four, or the landlord has the right to revoke the underlying lease. The landlord has to consent to it, but there has to be a good reason to refuse (subtenant is unable to pay, e.g.). Nor may the primary tenant demand "excessive" rent, but this term is not defined.
Technically, however, a lease or sublease of less than 30 days is illegal, an unintended consequence of a law primarily aimed at unlicensed hotels run by landlords of fleabags. The legislature is considering a bill to relieve primary tenants in this situation, since such subleases are considered good public policy; they bring in lots of tourist dollars, and tourism is NYC's second biggest industry after finance.
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