Landlords of close to 1 million rent-stabilized apartments are fighting back.
In a lawsuit filed on Wednesday, a group of building owners sued the city’s Rent Guidelines Board over its decision to freeze rents for rent-stabilized tenants for up to two years. The plaintiffs contended that the board was stacked with Mayor Zohran Mamdani loyalists who were intent on fulfilling his campaign promise of freezing the rent.
What You Need To Know
In a lawsuit filed on Wednesday, a group of building owners sued the city’s Rent Guidelines Board over its decision to freeze rents for rent-stabilized tenants for up to two years
The plaintiffs contended that the board was stacked with Mayor Zohran Mamdani loyalists who were intent on fulfilling his campaign promise of freezing the rent
Matt Rauschenbach, a spokesman for the mayor, said in a statement that the city is prepared to defend the board’s decisions and that it considered both tenant and landlord factors
“The Rent Guidelines Board, by law, is charged with making a data-driven economic decision about conditions in the residential real estate industry. In fact, what they did was to give effect to the mayor’s campaign promise,” said Deborah Riegel, co-counsel in a lawsuit against the Rent Guidelines Board.
“It was entirely an engineered process,” she added. “Circumstantially, it is very clear that this was the direction given by the mayor both in his campaign and after he took office.”
Riegel said the resignation of landlord representative Christina Smyth, who called the process “theater,” as proof of their case. But City Hall argued that the board came to its decision independently.
Matt Rauschenbach, a spokesman for the mayor, said in a statement that the city is prepared to defend the board’s decisions and that it considered both tenant and landlord factors.
In an interview with Inside City Hall, Deputy Mayor for Housing and Planning Leila Bozorg said the city is developing ways to help struggling landlords.
“Our approach is to look at the nuance at what’s driving the cost increases. Things like insurance, things like property taxes, adults and fuel. And try to develop policy solutions that actually get at those issues without assuming that tenants can bear the rising rents to cover those operating costs,” said Bozorg on Thursday night.
The landlords in the lawsuit want a judge to void the freeze. They want the board to meet again and use all available data, which they believe will result in rent increases.
Tenant advocates aren’t worried that there will be a reversal. Sumathy Kumar, the executive director of the New York State Tenant Bloc weighed in: “The case is weak. We got that rent freeze fair and square, and this is their coping mechanism.”
Kumar added that tenants this year felt like they were heard after years under former Mayor Eric Adams experiencing rent increases.
“For a very long time landlords and real estate have exerted way too much control over our state,” said Kumar. “This rent freeze and this moment that we are in us about tenants finally leveling the playing field and I think it’s unfortunate that they are so against that.”
Under Mayor Bill de Blasio’s tenure, the board froze the rent three times and faced a similar lawsuit by landlords that ultimately failed. That suit alleged the board based its decision on tenant affordability; this week’s lawsuit alleges the board ignored economic factors.