A recent report in the Wall Street Journal (reposted on Realtor.com) says a New York State judge questioned whether NYC landlords can prove their claim that the city’s Rent Guidelines Board used a “sham process” to enact Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s promised rent freeze. Landlords are seeking to overturn the freeze, arguing that Mamdani improperly influenced the supposedly independent board and that his appointees cherry-picked data to achieve his desired outcome.
Now more than nine months into Mayor Mamdani’s first term, opponents are fighting back with lawsuits to challenge his major policies like the rent freeze and a new tax on luxury second homes (aka pied-à-terre). The rent-freeze case, originally filed in Staten Island (which is the only borough Mamdani lost) was moved to Manhattan because that is where the rent board vote occurred.
“They left landlords to drown,” Randy Mastro, the lawyer who brought the lawsuit, said in court.
Justice Brendan Lantry pressed Mastro to substantiate his allegations against the city. Mastro, a former deputy mayor under Eric Adams, said Mamdani appointed a handpicked majority to the rent board upon taking office and held a private meeting with board members about the “true cost of living” in the city.
“This supposedly independent fact-finding body was spoon-fed by the mayor’s office this crazy ‘true cost of living’ presentation,” Mastro said. He also alleged the board intentionally ignored landlords’ debt payments, which are often a significant portion of their costs.
