Niagara Falls condemns 3 rental houses

NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. – The City of Niagara Falls is cracking down on homeowners and landlords ignoring city codes.

It started last year when the city passed new regulations for short term for vacation rentals when it became clear websites like Airbnb were becoming popular.

Niagara Falls now requires those renting their houses out in that capacity to register them with the city and allow a code enforcement officer to inspect the house.

But some are still trying to rent those houses without having them inspected.

Community Development director Seth Piccirillo worked with code enforcement to condemn three houses that hadn’t complied this week.

"They are maybe falsely advertising what's available,” he said. “The reason we're so serious about this, people get there thinking they're going to get one type of product. They end up in a house where there are no smoke detectors, it's run down. That's a bad situation for any city, especially tourism cities.”

Two of three condemned houses are on 22nd Street and owned by the same out-of-state person.

Neighbors said the vacation renters were disruptive and that some people were using them for parties.

One neighbor who complained to the city shared photos and videos she took of more than 20 people going in and out of one of the now-condemned houses.

Piccirillo said the city has sent several letters to the homeowners and given them several chances to register.

“We have to show that we are serious about enforcing these laws,” he said.

An unintended effect, however, is that it could leave naïve tourists out on the street. Channel 2 was on 22nd Street when a family who said they were from New York City showed up to a condemned house they couldn’t enter. The family did not want to be interviewed, but said they’ll find a hotel instead. They took pictures as proof in hopes Airbnb will refund them.

As of Wednesday night, that same house was still listed as available on the Airbnb website.

Councilman Ken Tompkins says if that happens, contact city government or police.

"We would not let a tourist not have a place to stay at a very reasonable price if we had to,” Tompkins said.

Of around 70 unregistered houses, Tompkins says about half have responded to city letters and are working on doing it the right way. More may be condemned.

Channel 2 asked if this crackdown is to help the troubled city make money. Tompkins said no.

"This is really all about making sure that when people come here, they have a safe, clean, enjoyable atmosphere that they're staying in that we don't have to worry about,” Tompkins said.