More Than 1,200 New Yorkers To Receive ‘Nevermind’ Pied-à-Terre Notices as City ‘Backpedals,’ More Get New ‘Nastygrams,’ Court Hears

New York’s surcharge on second homes lives to see another day Monday as New York Supreme Court Justice Wayne M. Ozzi declined to rule from the bench on the city’s controversial pied-à-terre tax rollout. But the city is continuing to adjust its numbers, having sent 1,251 new notices to homeowners who were previously tapped for the surcharge, officially clearing them from the $40,000-plus fee.The city reevaluated the roster of 17,000 homeowners who received surcharge notices last month following receipt of 2025 tax return information from the state, leading the Department of Finance to further whittle down its assessment of how many pieds-à-terre fall under the new tax, as part of the “iterative process” of implementation, the city’s attorney Steven Banks told the court. Attorney Randy Mastro, who brought the case on behalf of New York City homeowners who say they were harmed by the pied-à-terre tax rollout, called the document “shocking” after Banks handed him a copy. “I guess one man’s iterative process is another man’s shifting the burden,” Mr. Mastro said towards the end of a two-hour hearing Monday. Mr. Mastro and his clients are challenging the city’s publication of a supplemental property tax roll last month as a downloadable table that lists the owner names, addresses, and property values of each of the city’s more than 900,000 residential properties, as well as the 17,000 notices those identified as likely pied-à-terre owners received. The supplemental roll violated owners’ privacy and was not required by the state law that created the surcharge and was initially presented in a way that caused panic and confusion, the plaintiffs allege. Meanwhile the notices, which Mr. Mastro dubbed “nastygrams” in court, were issued to several homeowners whose properties were easily identifiable as their primary residences, illegally shifting the burden of proof to homeowners, whom the notices directed to apply online for exemptions.Mr. Mastro himself, who until January of 2025 was obligated to live in New York City as a requirement for his role as deputy mayor under Eric Adams, reminded the court that he himself received a surcharge notice at the home he has occupied for decades and where he registered his address as a city official.“They didn’t do their homework and they’re still trying to pass the buck,” he told the judge.Mr. Banks, for his part, argued that the state had “moved heaven and earth” to get the city tax return information for 2025 filings this month, well ahead of its standard availability in February, and the city has issued updated notices as new information became available. The city made a “rational decision” to start issuing notices before it received the tax return data in order to give homeowners a longer window to file for exemptions, Mr. Banks told the court.The meaning of the word “exemption” was a focus of much debate between Mr. Mastro, Mr. Banks and Judge Ozzi during Monday’s hearing. Mr. Banks brushed it off as a “semantic game.” The city’s position is that none of the plaintiffs has a valid claim against the rollout, as all have either been granted exemptions or never received surcharge notices in the first place. “It’s not an exemption. It is an error,” Mr. Mastro said, arguing that the city had illegally put the burden of proof on homeowners when City Hall rightfully bore the obligation to find pieds-à-terre.While the city has approved 3,655 exemptions as of August 28, another 5,874 applications are still pending, according to the new document the city presented in court. Between granted exemption applications and homeowners the city has independently cut from its list of suspected pieds-à-terre, almost 40 percent of the initial 17,000 have been cleared, according to Mr. Mastro.Another 4,400 homeowners are due to get “new not-as-nasty nastygrams,” as Mr. Mastro put it, as the city seeks to confirm residence in light of the new tax information. “Now they are backpedaling. Now they are taking half-measures to try to justify their illegal conduct,” he said. Judge Ozzi said he would issue a decision in due course, making the case a priority.

More Than 1,200 New Yorkers To Receive ‘Nevermind’ Pied-à-Terre Notices as City ‘Backpedals,’ More Get New ‘Nastygrams,’ Court Hears

More Than 1,200 New Yorkers To Receive ‘Nevermind’ Pied-à-Terre Notices as City ‘Backpedals,’ More Get New ‘Nastygrams,’ Court Hears

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