The owner of a luxury Miami Beach home sued by the city over being a "party house" has reached an agreement with the city, court records showed.
The home, located at 1776 Bay Drive, had been described as an "illegal short-term rental" that had amassed hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid fines and code violations.
The suit said the home's guests had caused "frequent and reoccurring disturbances to neighbors," and that the total fines against the home and tenant topped $290,000.
Under the agreement reached Friday, the home's owner and operator, Stephen Kraus and The Nightfall Group LLC, have agreed to not use the house as a short-term rental.
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Miami Beach defines short-term rentals as anything fewer than six months and a day.
Under the agreement, any rental listings for the property for any term less than six months must be removed.
Kraus will have to pay a $387,650 fine, and Nightfall must pay a $250 fine under the agreement.
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Scott Weissman, the property's current tenant, must vacate the property by June 15 and will have to pay a $66,375 fine under the agreement.
Weissman also agreed not to hold “any possessory or ownership interest in any property within the city's territorial jurisdiction” for one year and not host any commercial parties or events at any residential property in Miami Beach for three years.
The suit said Kraus had purchased the home in 2020 for $6.5 million, and the home was making as much as $7,650 per night.
According to the suit, the landlord and/or tenant had been cited with at least 45 violations of the city code since February 2022, including repeated noise violations and improper commercial use of the property and more.
"This is a victory for the law-abiding residents of Miami Beach who had to put up with endless parties and raucous behavior in this single-family neighborhood,” Miami Beach City Commissioner Alex Fernandez said in a statement.
