In this weekend’s Your Money column, I consider the case of Nigel Warren, who rented out his bedroom in a two-bedroom apartment via Airbnb only to get threatened with over $40,000 in fines for various violations of New York laws.

Mr. Warren wondered, as did I, why Airbnb didn’t tell its users exactly what the law says in New York City and other major urban areas with strict rules. So I asked the company why it didn’t provide more clear information when hosts register with addresses in these cities. I also inquired as to whether it wants every user now breaking the law (or the terms of their lease or their condominium’s house rules) to take down their listings immediately.

Here’s the statement that I received in response from the company spokeswoman Kim Rubey, along with my comments on what the company seems to be trying to do between (and outside of) the lines.

Thousands of people use Airbnb every day to help make ends meet, travel the world, explore new neighborhoods and make new friends.

No quarrel here. I’m one of them.

The responsible nature of our community results in very few complaints like this, but when they do occur we work diligently to address them.

Actually, when Mr. Warren wrote to Airbnb’s customer service questioning the company’s motives, it did not respond with an offer to pay his $415 an hour in legal bills. Instead he got a note saying that he should have known better. “I am sorry to hear that you are gong through a stressful situation and i home (sic) that a prompt resolution can be reached,”said Maria C., the customer service representative who responded.

We provide a variety of tools to help hosts understand their obligations under local laws, regulations or contracts, and they commit to us that they will comply with those rules and regulations when they sign up.

Airbnb does not put its (12,000 word-plus) terms and conditions squarely in front of new users, as other sites do. Instead, by pressing save on a new listing, they are de facto attesting to the fact that they agree with the terms, which are a hyperlink away. As for those tools that explain the local laws or provide links to them, I could not find them on Airbnb’s site. I asked Ms. Rubey to point them out to me, and she did not respond.

We are constantly re-evaluating how to do our job better, because in the end our goals are the same as the goals of the communities in which we have hosts: to create safe, great experiences for our hosts — many of whom depend on our site to make ends meet — to add value to local communities.

There’s that “make ends meet” meme again, echoing the same language from the beginning of the statement. Fast Company picked up on this earlier this year, with a piece titled “Airbnb Saved My Life.”

I have no doubt that this is true, and I admire the company’s partial success in turning the conversation about following the rules into one about sad or struggling people just trying to get by. Some of the struggling people using the site, however, are breaking the law and don’t know it. And they’ll struggle more if they face five-figure fines or eviction by landlords who eventually figure out what they’re up to.

Article source: http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/30/airbnb-responds-to-questions-about-hosts-breaking-local-laws/?partner=rss&emc=rss