A group of landlords is suing the city’s Rent Guidelines Board, claiming the board, which is designed to operate independently, made a “sham” decision to implement a rent freeze.
The lawsuit, filed in Staten Island State Court, seeks to stop the freeze and force the board to reevaluate and vote for a rent increase.
The nine-person panel last month voted to freeze rents for both one- and — for the first time in the city’s history — two-year leases. It was a major win for Mayor Mamdani, who’d campaigned on such a freeze when running for mayor. After becoming elected, though, Mamdani quieted down on the calls for a freeze amid the threat of lawsuits.
“Once he assumed office, the 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,” the suit said. “To do the Mayor’s bidding, this Board then made a mockery of its statutory mandate, resorting to multiple manipulations of its own data to try to justify this irrational result.”
The suit, filed by a group of seven landlords, also cited the resignation of Christina Smyth, a former landlord representative on the RGB who stepped down from the board just hours before its June vote. Smyth had been appointed by ex-Mayor Adams, who, in his last moments in office, attempted to stack the rent board against Mamdani but ultimately failed.
“To have a sitting Board member resign in protest, rather than be party to a sham process with a predetermined outcome, and then to call it out as an insider in such stark terms, is as remarkable as it is unprecedented,” read the suit.
The plaintiffs, represented by ex-Adams official Randy Mastro, also filed a demand for all communications between the rent board and City Hall, the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants and the mayor’s new Office of Mass Engagement, which canvassed some neighborhoods to encourage New Yorkers to testify at RGB hearings.
Mamdani named six members to the nine-person panel in February.
The freezes are slated to take effect Oct. 1.
“The Rent Guidelines Board is an independent body,” Matt Rauschenbach, a Mamdani spokesperson, said in a statement. “We are confident that the Board evaluated all of the relevant data and considered the factors facing both tenants and landlords across New York City. The Law Department is prepared to defend the RGB’s decisions. The Mamdani administration remains committed to the success of the rent-stabilization system, which has prevented displacement and provided stability to generations of New Yorkers.”