Metro

Web site sublets ‘illegal’ – Judge blasts NYers who rent out rooms to travelers

Thousands of New Yorkers who rent out their apartments on the popular traveler site Airbnb.com are breaking the law, a New York judge ruled — and they could be slapped with hefty fines.

East Village condo owner Nigel Warren was hit with a $2,400 penalty Monday for subletting his pad to a Russian tourist in December for $100 a night.

Judge Clive Morrick ruled that Warren broke a law passed in 2011 to stop landlords from turning their buildings into illegal hotels because he had rented to the woman for fewer than 30 days and wasn’t home when she was there.

But Warren is hardly alone. As of yesterday, there were 22,704 rentals listed on the company’s Web site in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, ranging from furnished rooms in Harlem to luxury digs in Tribeca.

Airbnb expects about $1 billion in New York City bookings this year, according to TheVerge.com.

The rental agreements are legal under state law only if the “host” remains in the home during the stay.

Warren was unapologetic yesterday, saying he hoped the ruling wouldn’t jeopardize the 4-year-old Silicon Valley outfit’s operations.

“I like what Airbnb does, and I don’t want this ruling to stand in the way of what I think is, overall, a great start-up,” Warren said in a statement.

The company aided Warren’s defense and is lobbying Albany to change the law.

“We are considering all appeal options as we move forward. Put simply, this decision is wrong on the law, and bad for New York,” Airbnb said in a statement.

The law was passed with the support of neighborhood associations and the city’s powerful hotel lobby. It was meant to target illegal single room occupancy hotels.

But the city argued that unlike hotels, the rentals don’t have mandated security and firefighting equipment and often lack a second entrance.

A city source told The Post it’s unlikely there will be a crackdown on the Airbnb rentals.

Warren was cited when a city inspector was in his building for other reasons and stumbled across the Russian tourist, who spilled the beans on the deal.