Mamdani Brushes Off Pied-à-Terre Lawsuit as Homeowners Fume

Mayor Zohran Mamdani is addressing questions about a new lawsuit over his office’s bungled pied-à-terre tax rollout with the same warm collectivism he has shown for nearly a month since New York City homeowners received confusing directives requiring them to prove their family homes aren’t vacation properties.The latest suit, filed in Staten Island’s Richmond County Supreme Court on Friday, was brought by a former first deputy mayor, Randy Mastro, now at Dechert LLP, on behalf of three homeowners. Mr. Mastro and his clients are seeking to halt the botched tax collection process and take down an online roster of every homeowner in the five boroughs. “Few things are more certain in New York City than death, taxes, and Randy Mastro filing a lawsuit against this administration,” the mayor said with a laugh on Monday as he stood on a subway platform following a press conference at the Chambers Street station in Chinatown.Mr. Mamdani rolled out the tax last month with a cheeky social media post telling owners of second homes, “you’ve got mail,” before sending residential property owners of all stripes into a panic about whether they were subject to the second-home tax. Many New York City homeowners ran to attorneys’ offices after they found themselves on a property roll of more than 950,000 addresses attached to the city website dedicated to the surcharge. The charge is only supposed to touch secondary residences worth more than $5 million, but the statute that created the pied-à-terre tax required all residences to be listed.Six days later the mayor clarified the distinction, but by then, letters had started arriving at family homes occupied for decades directing homeowners to prove their residency or face new levies — some reaching into the upper five figures. Almost as soon, reports of roadblocks with the website where the letters directed New Yorkers to apply for exemptions started rolling in. Pressed as to whether he had any regrets about the rollout, Mr. Mamdani conceded nothing, saying his team would “vigorously defend” the city’s position against Mr. Mastro’s suit “as we have with the previous lawsuits he has filed and I’m sure with the lawsuits he will continue to file in the months and years to come.” The mayor added that the city felt “confidence coming from both the legality of the city’s actions as well as the importance of the surcharge,” which is projected to add approximately $500 million to public coffers.As he was speaking, an attorney for the city was filing paperwork to oppose the homeowners bid to pause the surcharge imposition, telling the court their claims “do not present any genuine urgency or cognizable irreparable harm.”To date, Mr. Mastro has filed six lawsuits against city and state authorities this year, challenging such policies as the relocation of a men’s shelter to Lower Manhattan, the freeze on stabilized rents, and the Mamdani administration’s failure to answer Freedom of Information Law queries concerning its reversal of executive orders related to antisemitism and Israel.Two of Mr. Mastro’s clients are the wife and father of Republican City Councilmember Frank Morano. The third is a Manhattanite, Simon Hedley, a single-property owner who reportedly supports the incoming surcharge, but not the way the city handled its launch.“We shouldn’t be getting letters like this,” Mr. Hedley said, calling the surcharge notice, which originally came with an August 21 deadline, “a somewhat threatening letter.”Mr. Mastro also filed an affirmation with the court on his own behalf, saying he received a notice at his $14 million Upper East Side home despite living at the address while he was concluding his role in city government just last year.“Given my recent employment by the City—in a high level role requiring that I reside in New York City no less—it is inconceivable that the City’s Department of Finance did not have records available to it demonstrating that my primary residence is at the property to which it sent me this notice imposing the burden of applying for an ‘exemption’ to the Surcharge, proving primary residency to the City Respondents’ satisfaction, or else be deemed to owe the Surcharge,” he wrote.Mr. Mastro did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.

Mamdani Brushes Off Pied-à-Terre Lawsuit as Homeowners Fume

Mamdani Brushes Off Pied-à-Terre Lawsuit as Homeowners Fume

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