A Staten Island judge temporarily blocked the rollout of New York City Democratic Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s controversial pied-à-terre tax on Monday.
Judge Wayne Ozzi issued a temporary restraining order requiring the city to remove its published tax roll, which contains more than 900,000 properties, and barring officials from taking further action on approximately 17,000 warning notices already sent to property owners. The order also pauses related deadlines while a lawsuit challenging the tax’s implementation moves forward.
The surcharge applies to certain New York City properties that are not used as primary residences worth at least $5 million and condominiums and co-ops valued at $1 million or more.
The homeowners behind the lawsuit are not challenging the tax itself. Instead, they argue that the city’s Department of Finance is improperly placing the burden on property owners to prove they do not owe the tax rather than requiring city officials to determine which properties are subject to it. The lawsuit claims the city placed “homeowners in an untenable position in the dead of summer.”
The lawsuit was brought by three homeowners, Rachel O’Brien, Carmine Morano, and Simon Hedley, who say they were forced to gather documents proving their properties are their primary residences.
“The rollout of this surcharge is a debacle,” said Randy Mastro, a lawyer for the plaintiffs.
The city also published a searchable tax roll containing information on roughly 900,000 properties, prompting privacy complaints from homeowners. The Department of Finance has said that the vast majority of properties on the roll are not subject to the surcharge and that only roughly 17,000 property owners who received warning letters are potentially subject to it.
Mamdani said Monday that his administration would “vigorously defend” the city’s implementation of the tax in court. His administration has maintained that the surcharge is legal and can be implemented fairly.
When Mamdani first promoted the tax, he released a controversial video featuring him outside the home of Citadel CEO Ken Griffin.
Griffin responded by saying Citadel would add more jobs in Florida following what he called Mamdani’s “creepy” video.
“We will add far more jobs in Miami over the next decade as an immediate and direct consequence of the mayor’s poor decision here with respect to his posting of that video,” Griffin said.
The next hearing in the homeowners’ lawsuit is scheduled for August 31.