With the recent news that there are 127 New Yorkers illegally making $100k per year or more through Airbnb, landlords are furious and taking measures against the practice.

While it's against the law in New York City to rent a space for less than 30 days if the host isn't present, plenty of people are making upwards of 10k-- and much more --by being "professional tenants," people who lease properties for the sake of renting them for a profit on Airbnb. 

So now, landlords and their attorneys are including clauses in lease contracts that explicitly forbid listing on Airbnb.

What's the big deal? Well, first of all, no landlord wants to find out that a tenant is breaking the law. 

Secondly, if tenants are caught violating these laws, the landlord is on the hook for the fines-- and they're not cheap.

Right now fines range from $1,600 to $25,000, but UWS City Councilwoman Helen Rosenthal introduced a bill in October to raise those fines to between $10,000 and $50,000. 

Though the tides may be turning, as founder of Mirador Real Estate Karla Saladino recently stated, "Landlords have repeatedly been asking for digital lock systems where you can track activity and who the keys are given out to," in an attempt to curb listings on the site and ones like it. 

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Saladino, whose company mainly manages exclusive rentals for management firms and landlords, also stated that one of Manhattans largest landlords is planning to install 5,000 new locks this coming year, another attempt to minimize illegal hotel type activity. 

Furthermore, law firm Rosenberg & Estis' Michael Pensabene recently won a case against a tenant inhabiting a rent controlled unit on the Upper West Side who had been making around $10,000 per month through Airbnb, while the rent was a "mere fraction of that."

But Airbnb stands firmly in the middle class advocacy position, something of a high horse, poised against rising rents as a supposed proponent of New Yorkers trying to make a little extra cash-- as many of their hosts are.

The issue many New Yorkers wonder about is how much this problem will contribute to a rise in their rents, or how much their landlords are to blame thi for rent hikes...

Check out Queens Landlord Unsuccessfully Evicted 3 Tenants Who Made Illegal Renovations. 

[Feature Image Courtesy NPR]