Airbnb party house fined $100,000 during Super Bowl crackdown on Miami Beach rentals
The city of Miami Beach issued $168,000 in fines related to illegal vacation rentals during Super Bowl weekend, including one party house with four previous citations, and it assessed more violations than the city had in a recent 30-day period.
Between the Thursday before the Super Bowl and Monday, the city imposed $168,000 in fines — a total of 17 violations of zoning and city codes.
That’s more violations than the city found in the 30 days between Dec. 23 and Jan. 23, a span when Code Compliance issued 10 violations for short-term rentals, according to city data.
Miami Beach prohibits short-term rentals in much of the city, and requires permits from the city and condominium board in areas where it is allowed, like at some properties in the Flamingo Park neighborhood and all along Collins Avenue and Ocean Drive.
Code Compliance predicted a surge in tourist activity around the Super Bowl, and ramped up its efforts to combat illegal short-term rentals by deploying its officers around the clock. The city expected as many as 150,000 visitors every day leading up to Super Sunday.
“This is a global event,” said Jorge Hernandez, a Code Compliance officer who worked late into the night on Friday enforcing the city’s short-term rental laws. “A lot of people from everywhere.”
Most of the fines assessed came from one violation. The owner of a party house on Pine Tree Drive, marketed as a “Plush Waterfront Wonderland w Pool, Hot Tub & Dock,” was fined $100,000 for the owner’s fifth violation of city ordinances. The home was advertised for $15,793 for a 6-day stay.
Code Compliance asked the occupants, who said they booked the house on Airbnb, to vacate the property within three hours, and they did.
An Airbnb spokesman said the home was not booked on the platform over Super Bowl weekend, and was last rented out via Airbnb in January.
But the advertisement on Airbnb led the city to visit the home. On top of the $100,000 fine to the property owner for running a short-term rental in a prohibited zone, the city will fine Airbnb for not displaying the property owner’s city-issued business tax receipt number and resort tax registration certificate number, a city spokeswoman said.
But the reason for Code Compliance’s visit to the home was its advertisement on Airbnb.
Hernandez, who regularly works from 4:30 p.m. to 1 a.m., was one of 33 code inspectors working longer shifts ahead of the Super Bowl.
A call Friday night took him to Apollo Condominiums at 1130 11th St. on South Beach, where unit 4C was advertised online as a “Bohemian Chic Condo in South Beach” suitable for Super Bowl fun.
“We let them know that this was not an approved rental, it was an illegal rental, and we asked them to leave,” said Bryan Marino, the owner of the unit. “One of them said, ‘No, I rented this fair and square,’ and he refused to leave.”
“She certainly marketed it,” he quipped.
Short-term rentals are allowed in the area, but not without a permit from the city and the condominium association. The “Bohemian” party pad had none of those, so Marino was fined $1,000 for the actions of his tenant.
“The tenant did something they weren’t supposed to be doing, subleasing the unit,” Hernandez said. “It is Super Bowl weekend.”
There are 2,260 authorized short-term rentals in the city, but illegal rentals are routinely advertised on platforms like Airbnb. About 3,900 homes in Miami Beach are advertised on Airbnb, according to BNBVestor, an investor tool that scrapes data from Airbnb listings online.
Those who advertise their listings online run the risk of being fined. Miami Beach’s stiff fines are among the highest in the country. Violators of the city’s prohibition of renting out homes in no-go zones may be fined $20,000 for each violation up to $100,000 for the fifth violation in 18 months.
Since the city put its new fine structure in place in 2016, Miami Beach has collected just $729,850 of the $8.2 million in fines assessed.
Hernandez said his department receives about 10 short-term rental calls per week. The department used to get a lot more, he said, before operators wised up and told renters how to handle city enforcement.
Nowadays, renters sometimes know to lie about their connection to the property owner, either by claiming to be family members or friends of the owner — or declining to speak at all.
“It’s a civil matter,” one guest at Apollo Condominiums told Hernandez. “It’s between the landlord and the tenant.”
The man added: “Neither of us wanted to be in this position. So we’re working on finding alternative accommodations, but in the meantime you can’t just displace people like that.”
Hernandez said the city’s powers only go so far.
“People are becoming very creative,” he said. “If somebody’s friends of the owner, there’s only so many questions that we can ask because we can’t really interrogate them.”
Marino couldn’t reach the tenant, but said he plans to evict her. The guests who rented the unit on Airbnb did not cooperate with Hernandez or Marino, and remained at the unit.
“I don’t think anyone wins here,” Marino told the Herald. “I certainly don’t win, the people who just came that wanted to have a good time and rent the Airbnb, they don’t win through this.”
Hernandez said the onus falls on unit owners, like Marino, not the city. He said Marino “needs to make sure that he screens all his tenants.”
But Marino said he was frustrated that he would be “stuck with a big cost” in fines and attorney fees to appeal before a special master.
“I want to do things the right way by the book,” he said. “It’s just frustrating that tenants have really no responsibility, no liability and they should. They should be accountable.”
Correction: A previous version of this article said that unauthorized short-term rentals are advertised on the platform HomeAway. The company says it enforces the city’s regulations in its listings.
Clarification: A previous version of this article said that the Miami Beach party house had been booked on Airbnb. It was advertised on the platform.
This story was originally published February 6, 2020 at 6:15 AM.
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