Primary Homeowners Enlist Their Children, Attorneys, Lawmakers To Escape Mamdani’s Pied-à-Terre Torment

When Marty Baumrind, 74, received a letter from the Department of Finance directing him to prove that he lives in his Cobble Hill home or risk a hefty bill under the city’s new pied-à-terre tax, he enlisted his millennial daughter to help him apply for an exemption through the online process. The process is supposed to be simple: Log on to the same city web portal where New Yorkers can pay fines or property taxes, upload a document or two, click “Submit.” But four attempts and several hours later, the Baumrinds told The New York Sun they are no closer to proving Mr. Baumrind actually lives in the home the family has occupied for 35 years. “ The roadblocks we’ve hit have just been trying to get on this site,” Lucy Baumrind said. “ We haven’t even gotten to the stage where you get to upload anything.”The frustrated father and daughter are far from an isolated case. Out of 17,000 residences identified for the new surcharge, 2,000 homeowners had completed applications for exemptions as of Monday, while another 2,800 remain open, according to City Hall. But the Baumrinds and others in their situation haven’t made it far enough into the process to be reflected in those numbers.“ We now have a username and a password, but every time we try to log on, we get an error message: ‘An unexpected error occurred,’” Ms. Baumrind said.“ I’m of the opinion that at the end of the day, we’re going to have to hire someone to represent us,” Mr. Baumrind said.The real estate attorneys of New York are responding to such calls, with emailed advertisements urging homeowners to call to “review their options” and client alerts reminding property owners that the city can review exemptions for up to six years after a determination is made, potentially reopening the bureaucratic can of worms. The city has extended the deadline to apply for exemptions an additional month, until September 18, following a fraught rollout of the pied-à-terre tax. First, the Department of Finance reposted the complete roster of residential property in New York City with a label stating: “This roll includes, but is not limited to, those properties that may be subject to the surcharge,” raising fears among even modest homeowners that they could be targeted for the tax. The mayor later confirmed that only those homeowners who receive letters would be subject to the surcharge, but almost as soon as the letters began arriving, so did social media reports of homeowners blocked from confirming their residency by error messages like the one the Baumrinds received.The debacle led Councilmember Frank Morano to request an oversight hearing, now scheduled for August 18 at 1 pm. A rally against the tax is also scheduled for noon outside City Hall.“This isn’t just about the merits of the tax,” Mr. Morano told the Sun on Wednesday. “This is about government. Before City Hall publicly identifies homeowners and asks them to prove where they live, it has a responsibility to verify. Based on the calls my office has received, that didn’t happen.”Department of Finance Director of External Affairs Jae Ko declined to comment on the oversight hearing and denied knowledge of any pervasive issue with the portal in a phone conversation with the Sun on Wednesday. He pointed to the 2,000 completed exemption applications as proof of its functioning. “There aren’t any systemic issues with the technology on the back end,” said Mr. Ko, though he acknowledged: “It could always improve.” The department increased the site’s bandwidth in preparation for the pied-à-terre tax rollout, he said.“If there are other tweaks that need to be done, we’re constantly looking at it, and we’re open to it. But these specific, individualized cases are bound to happen, and we encourage people to reach out for assistance.” People who face difficulties with the online portal can apply in person at the Department of Finance Business Centers located in each borough. Walk-ins are welcome, according to Mr. Ko, or homeowners can schedule an appointment by calling 311. Instead of going to City Hall, many recipients of the letters are calling their attorneys.Real estate attorney Seth I. Feldman says he has done little besides fielding pied-à-terre tax questions since the mayor launched the surcharge program two weeks ago, which he says is replete with legal gray areas.“ We have no idea what the Department of Finance is going to say to someone who purchased a brand-new primary residence less than a year ago, but they don’t live there yet because they’re renovating it,” he told the Sun. Similarly, properties that are currently in probate raise potentially thorny questions. How the city will address mixed-use properties, where one unit may house a tenant while the other does serve as the owner’s pied-à-terre also remains to be seen. Feldman acknowledged that the Department of Finance was under pressure to get the surcharge in operation after the state enacted its budget bill at the end of May. With the pied-à-terre tax effective immediately, the city agency has to start collecting by January 1, 2027.Still, he says, the rollout was “sloppy.” The city could have first sent homeowners a request for information or call to apply for exemptions without the threat. From there, the department could have sent surcharge notices or audited homeowners’ exemption requests.A two-step process would have involved “fewer innocents getting hit, fewer people calling up lawyers like me in a panic,” Mr. Feldman said.But for Mr. Baumrind, it’s the asking that is offensive. “I resent the fact that I have to prove my residence,” he said. “I’m Brooklyn-born, and sadly raised part of my youth in Queens, but I returned to Brooklyn in 1969 and have lived on my block since 1971, and have paid income tax since I was 18 to New York City every year and continue to do so today from my home address, which is also where my license and everything else is registered. All they have to do is push a button.”

Primary Homeowners Enlist Their Children, Attorneys, Lawmakers To Escape Mamdani’s Pied-à-Terre Torment

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