Judge Orders New York City To Scrap Notices For Mamdani's Tax On Second Homes

Authored by Jill McLaughlin via The Epoch Times,

A Staten Island judge ruled Sept. 29 that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's administration mishandled the rollout of a pied-à-terre tax on second homes in July, ordering the city to scrap the notices and start over.

Supreme Court Justice Wayne Ozzi sided with homeowners who claimed the program that in July added a special tax on second homes worth more than $5 million penalized them needlessly.

Ozzi found "the mailed notices are arbitrary and capricious, affected by errors of law, and in violation of the recipients' due process rights."

"Respondents failed to properly make individualized 'initial determinations' with regard to 'primary residences,'" Ozzi wrote in the ruling. "All previously Mailed Notices are to be canceled."

The homeowners sued on Aug. 7 and were granted a temporary restraining order by Ozzi on Aug. 10.

The lawsuit claimed the city's notices "do not constitute proper notice under Tax Law" and sought relief for over 900,000 properties and owners who were identified in a list published online by the city.

Ozzi ordered the city to remove the list from the website and replace it with properties that are subject to the surcharge.

He also ordered the city to cancel all previously mailed notices and mail new notices only to a property that has been individually assessed to be a non-primary residence and subject to a surcharge.

The city was also directed to use the most recent available tax information and current fiscal year information for the tax assessments.

The new notices were required to include information about how property owners can challenge the city's final determinations and include procedures and property records or documents to support the city's findings, along with other information.

Mamdani's office didn't return a request for comment.

Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella said he strongly agreed with the ruling.

"We have said from the beginning that it was fundamentally wrong to put more than a million people on this 'enemies list,'" Fossella said in a statement. "And, the vast majority of those who were on the list did not belong at all.

Fossella said he thought the city should apologize for needlessly putting hundreds of thousands of people in distress.

"In being irresponsible and arbitrary, the City artificially created an atmosphere of confusion and fear about receiving this tax, and their information being wrongfully exposed, for no good reason," Fossella said.

The tax on second homes was first announced by Mamdani on social media in May. Mamdani said the tax would be for the "ultra-wealthy elite - those who own $5 million apartments in New York City but don't actually live here."

The tax became effective July 1 as part of the city's fiscal year 2027 budget. The measure was expected to generate about $500 million for the city each year.