NYC Enforcement Boss on Short-Term Rental Law: 'It's Working' - Exclusive

The head of the New York City Office of Special Enforcement recalls how the agency was inundated with short-term rental registration applications in August 2023.

A judge had just dismissed Airbnb’s lawsuit against what it claimed was a “de facto ban” and short-term rental hosts would need to register their listings. Local Law 18 went into effect nearly a month later, on September 5, 2023.

The OSE went into all-hands-on-deck mode to deal with a massive backlog, said Christian Klossner, the agency's executive director.

Fearful of seeing their listings getting taken down by Airbnb, Vrbo or Booking.com, some hosts seemingly fired off applications without clearly understanding prohibitions such as basement or rent-regulated apartments, or being on the Prohibited Buildings List.

To clear the backlog, the OSE added 10 staff members and for two months used 10 members of the New York City Police Department's cadet program. They supplemented what was already in place: two complaint intake lines, three investigators, two staff analysts, a director and a paralegal. Klossner and a deputy director also devoted much of their time to the effort.

The agency also reached out for help to the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal, as well as the city's Department of Buildings.

According to the following chart from OSE's fiscal 2024 annual report, the applications that came in during the surge around the time the law went into effect numbered more than half the applications received during the 16-month period ending in June 2024. The average processing time fell from 88 days to seven. This does not include days that applications were returned to the applicant to obtain additional information, such as proof of ident