NEW YORK (BLOOMBERG) -- A group of New York City landlords sued to void a rent freeze approved in June, arguing that Mayor Zohran Mamdani improperly influenced the Rent Guidelines Board’s vote and ignored evidence of rising operating costs for building owners.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Staten Island, contends the board’s decision was “arbitrary and capricious” because it relied on erroneous and manipulated data. Mamdani also allegedly appointed board members “predisposed” to support a rent freeze.
Mamdani “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” in order to deliver on his campaign promise of freezing rent,” the landlords claimed.
Spokespeople for Mamdani’s administration didn’t immediately respond to request for comment.
The suit was brought by five small landlords of properties in Staten Island, Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx. They were represented by Randy Mastro, a former deputy mayor under Rudy Giuliani.
“This was a sham process with a predetermined outcome that Mayor Mamdani dictated by fiat,” Mastro said in a statement. “That is not the way government decisions by independent boards are supposed to be made.”
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