City Hall is suing to try and shut down an allegedly illegal hotel that used Airbnb to advertise its rooms in a Manhattan apartment building, after repeated attempts at doing so out of court, city officials announced Tuesday.

In a 41-page suit filed in New York State Supreme Court, Mayor Eric Adams’ administration claims real-estate broker Arron Latimer and Apex Management’s team employed several LLCs and sites like Airbnb to engineer a short-term rental apartment scheme in a four-story building in Manhattan. 

The defendants allegedly “refused to stop their illegal short-term rental operation despite multiple enforcement efforts” that were conducted by city agencies at 44 E. 51st St. They had “attempted to abate these public nuisances through pre-litigation administrative enforcement efforts, to no avail,” reads the suit.

Renting out a residential space for less than one month without its owner present is illegal in New York City.

City Hall alleges that, along with breaking the law against “short-term occupancy of permanent only residential dwelling units,” Latimer and Apex managing member Esther Yip flouted city regulations related to fire safety, like insufficient sprinklers and exits.  

“Today the city is taking actions to shut down illegal short-term rentals and protect our visitors, our communities and our hospitality industry,” Adams told reporters during a press conference outside the building. “These short-term, illegal rentals have a major impact on our hospitality industry and those who are employed in the industry.

“The defendants continued to run the operation, really thumbing their nose at the law, and we’re saying that this thumbing of the nose at the law is ending,” the mayor added. “There are multiple violations, including hazardous conditions. It’s something that puts individuals in jeopardy for the safety and public and public health.”

“Today we’re sending a message: This kind of lawlessness will not be tolerated in our city.”

Christian Klossner — head of the Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement — explained that state and city laws only permit homes of all sizes to be rented for up to two non-permanent residents and only when the host is living with the guests.

“They take housing away from New Yorkers, they endanger the tourists who book and stay there and they disrupt the quality of life for our neighbors,” he said of illegal hotels.

At the Turtle Bay apartment building, defendants have used about 30 different host accounts, a portion of which were listed under phony names or other people’s, and used fake addresses to try to hide the illegal activity, Klosnner said Tuesday afternoon.

“Latimer used 10 Different LLCs each with its own bank account and set up with Latimer as the signatory to receive the payments for over 2200 illegal transactions,” he told reporters. “And he deceived over 6500 people visiting our great city by providing them with unsafe and illegal accommodations.”

In a statement, an Airbnb rep said the company “banned” the defendants from the platform “months ago.”

Nathan Rothman, the Public Policy Regional Lead, added praise to Adams “for taking swift action on illegal hotel operators who flout the rules.”

“Airbnb currently shares information with the City, and looks forward to working with the City and State to build an effective and transparent regulatory framework to differentiate between the responsible Hosts who should be protected under the law and operators of properties like this who have no place on our platform,” Rothman added.