Name: San Diego settles with owners of short-term rentals that city attorney cited for running raucous party houses
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San Diego settles with owners of short-term rentals that city attorney cited for running raucous party houses

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Copyright © 2022, The San Diego Union-Tribune | | AdvertisementAdvertisement The owners of two vacation rental homes that were accused of operating large, raucous parties amid the pandemic have reached settlements with the city of San Diego, which took steps last year to shut down the Airbnb rentals.While the final legal judgments worked out by the San Diego City Attorney’s Office for the two properties in La Jolla and Bankers Hill differ in scope, both stipulate that the homeowners are barred from “maintaining, causing or permitting” a public nuisance or allowing large gatherings in violation of public health orders related to COVID-19. They also are required to each pay fines of more than $30,000 and to address multiple building code violations on their properties.At the time City Attorney Mara Elliott filed the original civil actions last year, her office was seeking penalties of at least $1 million each.Advertisement“Irresponsible landlords who put profit before the public’s health, especially during a pandemic, must be held accountable,” Elliott said in a statement. “Strong laws with clear consequences are the best deterrent, which is why I look forward to the city’s first short-term rental regulations taking effect next year.”The settlements, signed off this week by a Superior Court judge, culminate months of talks following civil suits filed last year by Elliott against the owners and managers of two rentals — a and a . In both court stipulations, the owners of the vacation rentals, which were taken off Airbnb’s platform last year, do not admit to any of the allegations in the original civil complaints.While the Bankers Hill homeowner, restaurateur David Curiel, is permitted to resume renting his house out for short-term stays, that is not the case with the La Jolla home, which is barred from hosting any overnight stays of less than 30 days.The City Attorney’s Office demanded that condition because it was especially concerned about police reports of parties at the La Jolla Farms home on Black Gold Road that sometimes drew more than 100 people late into the night and early morning and on occasion involved instances of underage drinking and violence. The result was numerous noise complaints from neighbors that consumed considerable time on the part of the police department over several years, said city attorney spokeswoman Hilary Nemchik. Many of the complaints came in at a time when public health orders barred large gatherings due to COVID-19.“In order to ensure the dangerous conduct stopped immediately, we settled with the owners who agreed to stipulations, including only renting the property for periods longer than 30 days,” Nemchik said of the La Jolla home.The condition may soon be moot, as the owners of the home, Mousa Hussain Mushkor and Zahra Ali Kasim, have put the one-acre La Jolla Farms property up for sale, listing it for $9,999,999. Amber Anderson, one of the listing agents with Pacific Sotheby’s International Realty, said the various building code violations that had been cited in the agreement have already been addressed, as required by the city.In the original complaint filed by Elliott’s office, the La Jolla home’s owners were named, along with their property manager, Nital Meshkoor, and Steven S. Barbarich, who was leasing the home and listing it on Airbnb as a short-term rental.“My clients were not kept abreast of these police calls,” said attorney William Pettersen, who represented the owners. “They’re not the evildoers. If they could have thrown Mr. Barbarich out on his ear, they would have but he took advantage of COVID protections (for renters). It was a commercial rental for him.“My clients are in their 90s and in very poor health. They don’t want to suffer any more difficulties like this so they are putting it up for sale.”Attorney Joseph Miskabi, who is representing Barbarich, said his client has yet to settle with the City Attorney’s Office. He said there have been some discussions and it’s possible a settlement could still be reached.Curiel’s attorney, David Horwitz, insists that the allegations of loud parties were exaggerations by irritated neighbors.“This was just a case of sensitive neighbors calling the cops on residents of the house for having loud parties even when we had proof that one of the loud parties was a 55-year old woman, her sister and a 30-year-old daughter sitting by the pool listening to Joni Mitchell,” Horwitz said. Curiel ultimately decided against renting out the home in the future for short-term stays because he didn’t want to risk additional civil penalties should neighbors complain again about the house. Under the stipulation with the city, Curiel was assessed $200,000 in civil penalties, but $170,000 of that was immediately suspended. They would be imposed, however, if Curiel were to violate the terms of the settlement agreement.“He’s not willing to risk that penalty by relying on some neighbor’s interpretation of whether music was too loud,” Horwitz said.Airbnb, which no longer has the two rental properties on its platform, said in a statement, “We support local officials in their efforts to address this issue and have strict rules in place which , as well as that cause repeated nuisance.”Elliott’s office points out that the actions taken against the two short-term rentals are part of an effort to prosecute nuisance properties that endanger public health and safety, including substandard independent living facilities, hoarding properties, and abandoned or vacant properties that attract criminal activity.“In the absence of regulations for short-term rentals, we used available remedies under the current law to stop nuisance activities and protect public health in our neighborhoods,” Nemchik said.Just a week ago, Mayor Todd Gloria signed into law new regulations governing the operation of vacation rentals, although they will not go into effect until July of next year. The new ordinance not only caps how many whole-home rentals can operate in the city but it puts in place a system for licensing them and enforcing public nuisance laws. Get U-T Business in your inbox on Mondays Get ready for your week with the week’s top business stories from San Diego and California, in your inbox Monday mornings. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the San Diego Union-Tribune. Show Comments Load More Advertisement Advertisement AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement

Copyright © 2022, The San Diego Union-Tribune | | AdvertisementAdvertisement The owners of two vacation rental homes that were accused of operating large, raucous parties amid the pandemic have reached settlements with the city of San Diego, which took steps last year to shut down the Airbnb rentals.While the final legal judgments worked out by the San Diego City Attorney’s Office for the two properties in La Jolla and Bankers Hill differ in scope, both stipulate that the homeowners are barred from “maintaining, causing or permitting” a public nuisance or allowing large gatherings in...

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Lori Weisberg

The San Diego Union-Tribune, the region's leading news source since 1868. Follow our journalists, too: http://j.mp/UTstaff

San Diego settles with owners of short-term rentals that city attorney cited for running raucous party houses

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