A Netflix executive made the mistake of renting her $1.8 million home in Los Angeles to a musician who then allegedly illegally turned it into an Airbnb and stopped paying rent.
Nikeeta Sriram, 31, works as a business strategy and growth products executive at Netflix and graduated from Harvard Business School a few years ago.
He moved to Los Angeles to take the job in 2021 and took advantage of low housing prices during the pandemic in 2022 by purchasing a home in the coveted Mid-Wilshire area for $1.675 million. It is now worth more than $1.8 million.
However, Sriram already had a lease at the time and decided to rent out her new property until she was ready to move in, she told the newspaper. Los Angeles Times.
The house’s owner says she has now been embroiled in a never-ending ordeal with her nightmare tenant, a touring musician who currently sings in British pubs. She says he has turned the rental into an Airbnb money-making scheme that grossed more than $215,000, while he recently refused to pay her rent.
Nikeeta Sriram, 31, works as a business strategy and growth products executive at Netflix and graduated from Harvard Business School a few years ago.
Nicholas Jarzabek, better known to his fans as Nick Driver, allegedly turned the Los Angeles home he was renting into an Airbnb and pocketed the revenue from the ads.
Sriram took advantage of low housing prices during the pandemic in 2022 by purchasing a home (pictured) in the coveted Mid-Wilshire area for $1.675 million. The house, pictured, is now worth $1.8 million.
Nicholas Jarzabek, better known to his fans as Nick Driver, was initially denied when he applied to rent Sriram’s property, as she opted for another pair of men who worked for a new company.
However, when the company went bankrupt in August 2022, the couple moved out and Sriram again looked for a tenant. Jarzabek applied again and Sriram recognized the name from his initial offer to rent the property.
“I didn’t think anything about it at the time. I thought he really liked the house,” Sriram told The LA Times.
“But in retrospect, it’s obviously suspicious,” he said. “Most renters try to move in on a specific schedule and you don’t see people applying for the same house three months apart.”
At first glance, Jarzabek seemed like a reliable tenant: with a million dollars in the bank, a white Tesla, and a shiny Rolex on his wrist.
“He spoke kindly about the house and offered to put down rugs so as not to scratch the floor,” Sriram said. “She said she would treat him as her own.”
And he treated it as if it were his own. It soon became clear that Jarzabek had set his sights on Sriram’s house because she was the perfect candidate for a successful Airbnb.
The property had two houses, which meant two Airbnbs for the price of one. There was a two-story, three-bedroom main house and a one-bedroom back house with a loft.
After the tour of the house, Sriram never saw Jarzabek again, but claims that he eventually became a major pest in his daily life.
During the first year of his tenure, Jarzabek caused few problems. He paid rent of $8,500 each month and did not demand repairs.
“He seemed like a very responsible tenant, but now I know it was because he wanted me to never come to the property,” Sriram said.
However, 16 months later, Jarzabek’s Airbnb listings for the property were exposed on December 29, 2023, when the ADT alarm was activated so many times in a row that police were automatically called to the property.
Sriram called ADT and was told police notified them that Airbnb guests had set off the alarm.
At first Sriram and her boyfriend, actor Peter Banachowski, thought there was a mix-up, but when they checked Airbnb they saw their property on offer.
The main house was listed for $688 per night, while the back house was listed for $496 per night, according to Airbnb listings in the eviction complaint he later filed.
He was listed on Airbnb under an account named Rich Jacobs, although it’s unclear if that name is an alias or if Jarzabek contacted someone to act as a “host” for the property on his behalf.
The host disguised the house to keep it hidden from Sriram, firstly, by not using any exterior photographs; she only uploaded a photo of the nearby Grove shopping center followed by snapshots of the home’s interiors.
He then provided a false address to Airbnb users, initially telling them the property was at 1830 S. La Brea Ave, which is actually the address of a motel called Starlight Inn that is about a mile away from the home.
The houses did well on Airbnb, with the largest house getting 4.76 stars out of five and the guesthouse getting 4.46.
However, written reviews of the home raised concerns. “Easy to find once the correct address was found, Air BNB indicated a different address than the one (submitted) by the owner,” said one tenant.
“The host took a very unpleasant and aggressive tone towards us when we had difficulty learning how to cancel on their website,” said another guest.
After learning of Jarzabek’s plan, Sriram attempted to confront his tenant over the phone. He told her to contact his attorney.
At first glance, Jarzabek seemed like a reliable tenant: with a million dollars in the bank, a white Tesla, and a shiny Rolex.
Taking matters into her own hands, Sriram hatched a plan to confront him in person by renting Airbnb for her so she could communicate with him through the website’s chat feature.
‘STOP RE-LISTING THIS PROPERTY. You are not authorized to sublet this property! she wrote.
As the drama continued and the houses were removed from Airbnb and then put back up for sale, Sriram filed for an eviction in Los Angeles Superior Court. In April, he filed a cease-and-desist lawsuit with Jarzabek’s attorney.
But while Sriram struggles to navigate complicated property rights laws, his house remains rented out on Airbnb.
Airbnb offered Sriram no help, so he once again took matters into his own hands by showing up at the property every time he seemed to have reservations (information he collected directly through the website).
She explained the situation to the guests, who were mostly understanding but naturally frustrated by the situation.
‘I feel terrible. “I didn’t want to ruin their vacation,” Sriram said. “But this is our only recourse since Airbnb didn’t help us.”
As part of his eviction lawsuit, Sriram subpoenaed Airbnb for information about Jarzabek. He discovered that although he communicated with her using a New York area code, the number registered on her Airbnb account had a +44 code, which is the area code of the United Kingdom.
He also obtained information about his earnings through the subpoena and learned that over the 16 months of his time at Airbnb, the listing generated $215,954 in payments, which is an average of about $14,500 a month.
“If the city can’t find a way to crack down on Airbnb, it should err on the side of caution and ban the platform until it can create a task force to manage it,” Sriram said. “The current solution is to let the havoc take place and see what happens.”
After spending months fighting legal battles, Sriram finally got his unlawful detainer lawsuit approved recently, allowing him to move forward with Jarzabek’s eviction.
This can only be done by a sheriff, and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department currently has a large backlog of eviction filings and a three-month wait.
Sriram and Banachowski could sue Jarzabek for damages, given that the owners estimate he has lost $100,000 since the beginning of the year, but suing someone in another country is a complex and expensive process.
‘Nick Diver’, as Jarzabek is known in the music world, has around 6,000 followers on Instagram and 785 followers on the popular music streaming platform Spotify.
“His Instagram shows he has tour dates in pubs all over the UK,” Banachowski said. ‘I understand why we have eviction protections for people in Los Angeles, but why is it illegal for us to repossess our house from a guy who’s not even in the country?’
‘Nick Diver’, as Jarzabek is known in the music world, has around 6,000 followers on Instagram and 785 followers on the popular music streaming platform Spotify.
Their most recent album, Black Liquorice, was released in 2023 and features a song ironically titled ‘Life of Crime’, as well as others including ‘Terrifying Me’ and ‘I Pretend to Know Too Much’.
Jarzabeck’s recent Instagram posts show him wandering around London and Paris, while continuing to rent out Sriram’s house on Airbnb and hiding his attempts at communication.
DailyMail.com contacted Jarzabek for comment on his social media and has yet to hear from the musician.