More New Yorkers join legal fight to halt Mamdani’s pied-á-terre tax after bungled rollout
More New Yorkers are joining the legal battle against New York’s new pied-à-terre tax, with one claiming the city mailed his notice to a neighbor nearly 30 floors below him, court documents show.
Four new plaintiffs joined attorney Randy Mastro’s lawsuit seeking to pause the surcharge on luxury second homes over the Mamdani administration’s botched rollout.
Kenneth Fishel, a real estate executive, says the Department of Finance sent him a notice warning he could face the levy despite years of paying taxes on his Park Avenue co-op. The notice was allegedly mailed to a neighbor 27 floors below him, whom Fishel encountered in an elevator.
The DOF sent 17,000 notices warning property owners they could face a five-figure tax bill unless they obtain an exemption under the law approved by state lawmakers and Gov. Kathy Hochul this spring.
All four new plaintiffs, who claim primary homes in Chelsea and the Upper East Side, applied for exemptions but have not received them. They say the city’s “tangled morass” of an exemption system has created problems despite the tax not applying to them. The surcharge covers one- to three-family homes worth at least $5 million and unoccupied, non-primary co-ops and condos worth at least $1 million.
The tax faced scrutiny Tuesday afternoon during a City Council hearing. The Mamdani administration submitted written testimony instead of sending a representative, defending its rollout and saying it has prioritized transparency and helped homeowners navigate the new surcharge.
A Staten Island judge initially paused the rollout, but an appeals court overturned the decision after Mamdani’s administration objected.
Mastro said the new plaintiffs would eliminate the city’s argument that the case was moot because an original plaintiff received an exemption.
