Mayor Zohran Mamdani plans to halt New York City’s tax lien sale program and might consider ending the practice.
The program began in 1996 and involves the sale of property owners’ unpaid tax liens and water debt at a discount to a private investor-backed trust, which then attempts to collect unpaid bills while levying new fees on the homeowners. Under the program, the city can sell a property tax lien when the owner owes as little as $5,000, and if water and sewer debt reaches $1,000 for condo owners.
The Gothamist reports the mayor is suspending tax lien sales for the current fiscal year and will conduct a six-month review of the policy to determine its viability. Critics of the tax lien sales claim it disproportionately impacts Black homeowners. Mamdani condemned the program as “racism” in his 2025 campaign.
Mamdani spokesperson Matt Rauschenbach issued a statement that said, “Our current property tax lien sale process to collect overdue taxes and fees is broken — allowing predatory debt collectors to profit off the backs of working and middle-class homeowners, driving New Yorkers out of their homes.”
The mayor’s executive budget estimated the city will lose $80 million in revenue by suspending the tax lien sale. The process was suspended during the 2020 pandemic and again in 2022. Reforms to the process that included an “easy exit” option for homeowners were introduced in 2024.
Rauschenbach added the Mamdani administration will be “pursuing ways to improve outreach, utilize new tools such as a landbank and develop protections for descendants living in their family home.”
