Furious residents at a Brickell condo overtaken by partying Airbnb guests have been pleading with City of Miami leaders for years to help them reclaim their homes. They had their hopes dashed — again — on Thursday when an inspection at the building was canceled.
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Partygoers stumble back to The Club at Brickell Bay at 4 a.m. March 30, 2026. Homeowners at The Club, where 85% of the condos are rented to tourists on Airbnb and other platforms, are fighting with the City of Miami to reclaim their building. |
The Club, located at 1200 Brickell Bay
Drive, has been transformed into a vacation hotspot over the
past eight years by the former HOA board and president, who
are all in the Airbnb business — and only the former
president lives in the building. They installed a hotel
reservation system and promoted The Club as a place where
property investors could make bigger profits renting by the
night instead of by the month or year.
But a multi-family residential condo needs a Certificate of
Use from the city for lodging rentals of less than 30 days.
The Club doesn’t have one, the Herald found.
“The city of Miami isn’t a functioning
government. It’s a circus,” said Ernesto Cuesta, president
of the Brickell Homeowners Association. He was on an anti-Airbnb
task force created last year by ex-Commissioner Joe Carollo
and Carollo aide William Ortiz that was rendered inactive
when Carollo was defeated. “We are only going backwards.
Nobody listens. Nobody works for real change.”
Homeowners at The Club have complained to city officials and
elected leaders about raucous disturbances, vulgar behavior
and dangerous strangers. They’ve complained about the
destabilizing effect on the neighborhood and the
inflationary effect on the cost of housing. They’ve sent
documentation of safety hazards and code violations —
jury-rigged repairs to the parking garage, laundry room and
swimming pools, packed elevators constantly breaking down,
and units subdivided with unpermitted walls that enable
hosts to jam a dozen guests into 2-bedroom units originally
designed to accommodate half that number.
They have email chains as tangled as a bowlful of spaghetti
as proof of their exasperating attempts to get somebody to
do something.
“The way the City of Miami and politicians refuse to be
accountable is something to be studied; it’s like their
superpower,” said Christina Lardon, Club homeowner since
2008. “Not taking responsibility is irresponsible. No other
city in the country would blow off the ruination of a
community. Isn’t leadership all about solving problems?
What’s it going to take? A tragedy in our condo?”
Miami Mayor Eileen Higgins and District 2 Commissioner
Damian Pardo have told homeowners to contact Florida’s
Department of Business and Professional Regulation.
Homeowners have done so previously, and got no relief other
than an election monitor assigned to count ballots at last
month’s HOA board election. The monitor detected forged
ballots and other voting irregularities.
Miami-Dade County Commissioner Vicki Lopez is helping
homeowners file new complaints with the state agency, which
oversees HOAs and Airbnb licenses. But it has no authority
over local code, zoning, building or short-term rental
regulations.
Lopez was also responsive in 2024, when she was a state
legislator. Lopez met with The Club’s HOA board to discuss
safety concerns that homeowners said were caused by
overcrowded units, such as a shaking elevator that dropped
multiple floors and water leaking into hallways.
Her legislative aide at the time, Alessandro Marchesani,
forwarded complaints about Airbnbs to the state agency, city
officials and city inspectors. He set up meetings between
police and Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office investigators
and a group of homeowners who delivered a box of HOA records
that they alleged was evidence of fraud.
“Our lobby still looks like Grand Central Station,”
Fernandez said, noting that three of seven elevators are
currently broken. “Where is the respect for our rights?”
Pardo said the city’s power is limited.
“Out-of-control short-term rentals is a horrible problem
that we don’t want infecting our neighborhoods,’’ Pardo
said. “It’s a very weedy, legally complex issue. We are
working with all city departments, the county, the state and
other jurisdictions to find lawful solutions. We also want
to help residents structure their own cases so they can go
to court or the proper regulatory agencies.”
Pardo said city leaders met last week to discuss a
“coordinated enforcement approach.” One impediment is the
Catch-22 of code enforcement: Inspectors can’t enter private
property — the condo units violating building code and
Airbnb regulations — without permission, and they must
observe and document any violation in order to issue a
citation.
Inspectors have responded to calls, but “without access, the
city’s ability to verify alleged violations and enforce the
code is significantly limited,” Pardo said.
Previous code-enforcement inspections
Inspectors can get access with the assistance of homeowners,
but it can be tricky and requires persistence.
“Yes, they can get in, and if they give up, that’s
laziness,” Cuesta said.
Two inspectors were escorted into The Club one night last
year by homeowners who targeted Airbnbs occupied by guests.
When guests answered the door, inspectors were able to
verify that they were staying in a vacation rental and
photograph their booking contracts. The inspectors were
forced to exit the building when the former board president
found them on the 16th floor and told them they were
trespassing.
The five citations they issued were subsequently dismissed
by the city’s code compliance department. When homeowners
asked why, a department official told them it was because
the hosts removed their online listings and promised to
cease. Flabbergasted homeowners protested the dismissals,
arguing that the listings would resume, which they did,
within days.
That circuitous email chain between homeowners and city
officials, including an assistant city attorney, illustrates
how homeowners have been betrayed and stonewalled, Lardon
said.
“I could enlist more action from a beached whale than city
leaders and department heads,” Lardon said. “Our entrapment
in this madhouse has hit a nerve with people all over Miami.
Shame on the city for hoping the fervor of this scathing
criticism will just fade away.”
Homeowners are determined to keep the heat on even though,
under the previous board president, they were subjected to
retaliation every time they complained. They received
cease-and-desist letters from their HOA attorney threatening
them with eviction.
The new HOA board and president, also all in the Airbnb
business, have pledged to make major changes in the way The
Club is managed and have already addressed shoddy repairs in
common areas.
‘I am incredibly frustrated’
Disappointment extends beyond The Club. Not even County
Clerk Juan Fernandez-Barquin can get help from the city.
He lives next door to an illegal short-term rental property
in the City of Miami. He sent documentation “multiple times”
to the code compliance department, including online listings
and photos, but “they have done nothing,” he said in an
email to the Herald. He did not use his job title to get
attention; he made his reports as a regular citizen.
“The code enforcement rep said there still wasn’t enough
evidence, that they need to send someone during the day,”
Fernandez-Barquin said. “I politely pointed out that during
the day the guests are probably gone already.
“I am incredibly frustrated.”
Downtown Neighbors Alliance President James Torres said the
city of Miami should examine how other cities like New York
and Miami Beach have cracked down on short-term rentals.
“Other cities have managed to impose and enforce tougher
regulations, such as a 60-day minimum, or the host has to be
present at the property,” Torres said. “You’ve got to listen
to the community. They will tell you what’s happening and
how to fix it.” There is ample blame to go around, Cuesta
said. “It’s a combination of board associations breaking
laws, management companies looking the other way because
they want to keep the account, city administration not doing
its job, elected officials failing to provide leadership,
and political appointees on the code enforcement board
lacking knowledge of the code they are supposed to enforce,”
Cuesta said. “It’s the perfect storm.”