Eddie Shiew, an Elmhurst, Queens, N.Y., landlord, is caught in a conflict with two of his tenants. Burak Firik and Dogan Kimili are renting one of Shiew's three-bedroom apartments for $2,500 a month but decided to turn it into a 10-bedroom Airbnb property, reported Pix11.
Shortly after moving in, Firik and Kimili hired a construction crew to put up walls to divide the apartment into 10 spaces, each fitting little more than a single bed. When Shiew heard about the renovations from a neighboring tenant, he went into the apartment, had the renovations torn town, and changed the locks. He explained that his two industrious tenants had violated the terms of their standard lease by conducting renovations without his consent, reported Fox40.
Shiew was forced to let them back in when the tenants filed a court order against him, saying that they were illegally evicted from their home. Though no further renovations have been done, Firik and Kimili are now using curtains to separate the spaces that they have listed on Airbnb, according to Pix11.
Using Airbnb, Kimili and Firik have been charging travellers $35 a night to stay in one of the very small rooms in their apartment, reported The Epoch Times.
"We know the laws very well, you'll not be able to evict us ever," Firik told Shiew in a text message, according to Fox40.
When reporters went to see the apartment, Kimili and Firik were nowhere to be found, though they still claim to live there. They did, however, meet some of the Airbnb guests staying there, reported Pix11.
