A Brickell condo tower notorious for illegally allowing short-term vacation rentals, disrupting the quality of life for unit owners was ordered to immediately stop hosting guests.
The city of Miami told The Club at Brickell Bay and its officers to halt short-term rentals that are in violation of state and local laws, determining that the building doesn’t have the required licenses and permits but has an improper Business Tax Receipt, Certificate of Occupancy and two Certificates of Use, the Miami Herald reported. The order came after the publication’s reports over the illegal short-term rentals that some unit owners had complained over.
“It is clear your building is being operated as a transient public lodging establishment,” Miami Assistant City Manager Barbie Hernandez wrote in an Aug. 11 letter to the condo. “This operation creates a significant life safety issue as your building is not approved for fire, life safety or disability requirements as provided for in the relevant codes.”
The city’s cease-and-desist letter marks the potential for some relief for longtime unit owners who have cited an onslaught of tourists, many of whom pack 10 into units subdivided by unpermitted walls and party through the night.
Homeowners had filed complaints to the city and raised issues with boisterous party crowds, packed lobbies and disruptions to their quality of life, with the tower earning a reputation as “Animal House.”
The 43-story tower was completed in 2005 at 1200 Brickell Bay Drive.
About 85 percent of the 43-story tower’s 643 units have been converted into Airbnbs since the pandemic. Members of the association’s board of directors have condoned the practice and are in the Airbnb business themselves. Former board president Karl de Borbon implemented a hotel reservation system and encouraged investors’ purchase of units, the newspaper said.
But certificates of use weren’t legitimate, the publication previously reported. The first one was issued in 2007 for residential use, but a former homeowner said it was forged as he never applied for it. The second one, issued in 2011, is for 30 units that weren’t approved by the condo association at the time, a former board president told the publication. The city’s letter said the building lacks the required licenses and permits for short-term rentals.
The city will allow 30 units to operate as vacation rentals, even though the company that applied in 2011 now has six Airbnbs in the building.
Board president Maria Sindia Borras and association attorney Eduardo Valdes did not respond to the publication’s requests for comment. Condo staff members previously denied city inspectors access to the tower to investigate homeowners’ complaints, according to the letter, and Valdes allegedly wrote cease-and-desist letters to residents who helped inspectors gain access, the newspaper said.
–– Lidia Dinkova
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