Judge Orders Mamdani Administration Back to Square One on Pied-a-Terre Tax Rollout

A New York Supreme Court judge on Staten Island ruled on Tuesday that the Mamdani administration must cancel 17,000 notices mailed to homeowners warning them that they faced a second-home surcharge. According to the City Reporter, Judge Wayne Ozzi ordered the Department of Finance to first examine “any and all resources and information available” before determining that the property is subject to the tax, and provide all records to support the contention that property is a second home.

The ruling, in response to a lawsuit filed by former deputy mayor Randy Mastro on behalf of homeowners who received the notices and maintained that their homes were primary residences, followed the Department of Finance’s acknowledgement that about 6,000 of the properties did not qualify under the “pied-a-terre tax” enacted this past May. The city admitted that it did not check property owners’ personal income tax filings before mailing the pied-à-terre warning letters, leading to lawsuits, according to the City Reporter.

In a statement, Real Estate Board of New York president James Whelan applauded Tuesday’s ruling. “From the beginning, we warned that this tax was rushed forward without adequate consideration of its legal, practical, and economic consequences,” he said. “Today’s decision confirms that the City’s rollout was deeply flawed and failed to provide basic procedural protections for homeowners.  This is an important victory for the thousands of New Yorkers who were wrongly swept into an arbitrary and confusing process.

“While the court’s ruling focuses on the implementation of the tax, it reinforces broader concerns about the legality and fairness of the tax itself,” he continued.  “The legal challenges are far from over, and we remain confident that New York homeowners will continue to prevail as these cases move forward.”