Southampton Cracks Down on Illegal Shares

If you re a young professional who wants to spend the summer living and partying with 10 or 15 of your closest friends, renting in the Hamptons just got a little tougher.

Several weeks into the summer season, officials in Southampton Town Hall are already making good on their pledge to crack down on illegal share-house activity this year.

The time-honored tradition of dozens of young people crowding into a Hamptons house for a summer of wild abandon first came under attack last summer.

The shares, usually populated by renters in their 20s and 30s, typically have housemates piled inside on everything from bunk beds to mattresses on the floor to bathtubs. Detractors say parties often get out of hand with music blasting from speakers, cars parked everywhere and blocking neighbors driveways, and beer cans and garbage strewn about the next morning.

The controversy took on a new life a year ago, when new homeowners in a notorious share area near Sunrise Highway began documenting the parties, later bringing their complaints to the Town Board of Southampton. The Board eventually shut down six houses.

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This year, officials are seeking to shut down three houses rented by a Queens woman who allegedly rented the houses to teenagers, according to town officials

Landlord Marilyn Tolchin-Joseph is alleged to have advertised her Hampton Bays houses on the Internet to weekend renters, a violation of the Town Code. Violating town regulations that limit rentals to five or fewer unrelated people, she could face fines of up to $8,000, a figure that was increased from $250 a year ago.

Still, the crackdown in Southampton and elsewhere in the Hamptons isn t likely to mean the demise of summer shares. There are still plenty of classifieds online and in newspapers, though the market might be slower and renters more cautious.

Many brokers don t bother with any sort of shares, however.

“We stopped doing that a long time ago,” said Ray Smith, a marketing director in Prudential Long Island Realty s Southampton Office. “It just doesn t pay. It s too small a place to get away with that out here.”

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