A Manhattan judge shut down a Lower East Side landlord’s network of Airbnb apartments and warned that she could lose control of her properties if she contin​​ued to flout laws barring the short-term rentals.
“Your very ownership of the buildings may be in jeopardy,” warned Manhattan Supreme Court Justice James d’Auguste told Rose King.
King had advertised 12 units in three buildings​ ​– 536 E. 14th St., 123 Ludlow St. and 127 Rivington St. — on Airbnb until the website shut down her accounts after the city sued over the operation.
“We removed [the listings] while we investigate the situation,” an Airbnb spokesman told The Post.
King said in court Monday that she didn’t understand the proceeding but would hire a lawyer to defend the $1.2 million lawsuit. She was assisted by a Mandarin Chinese interpreter.
The suit is the mayor’s biggest ever crackdown on a landlord for illegally using Airbnb.
The city’s allegations in court papers “seem to indicate illegal conduct,” the judge said.
He barred King from renting the units for less than a month at a time pending a full hearing scheduled for next week.
“Ma’am I want you to listen very carefully under New York law the apartments in these buildings cannot be rented for periods of less than 30 days,” the judge told King.
He warned that t if she violated his order barring her from continuing to rent the apartments through Airbnb he could find her in “contempt of court” and the city could put the properties in receivership.