A group of New York City landlords has filed a lawsuit to overturn the recently enacted rent freeze in stabilized apartments.
The Real Deal reports six landlords are asking the New York Supreme Court to void the freeze approved by the Rent Guidelines Board and resubmit the issue the board for a rent increase. The lawsuit argued the board’s vote for a rent freeze was a “sham” because the outcome was predetermined by Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who campaigned on forcing a freeze and appointed board members allied to his goal.
To back their complaint, the landlords cited the resignation of former board member Christina Smyth, who represented owners on the nine-member board and who stepped down on the morning of the vote because she felt it was only “theater.” The landlords also sought to justify their push for a rent increase by citing the board’s data on how landlord operating costs increased 5.3% in the past year.
“[T]he Mayor went to extraordinary lengths to pack the Board with loyalists and then spent millions in City funds to fill the Board’s hearings with tenant advocates,” said the landlords in their complaint. “That Mayor Mamdani preordained this outcome and then took affirmative steps to stack the deck is now undeniable.”
Representatives for the Rent Guidelines Board and Mamdani’s office did not publicly comment on the lawsuit.
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