City plans to appeal; Sept. 18 tax-notice deadlines suspended
Wayne Ozzi, a state judge in Staten Island, entered the temporary restraining order Monday in response to a lawsuit filed Friday by three homeowners seeking to delay the tax’s rollout. The order requires the Department of Finance to remove the tax roll of 960,000 properties that it published last month as part of the pied-à-terre rollout, and it bars the city from taking any additional enforcement action on the warning notices already mailed to 17,000 homeowners.
The lawsuit does not challenge the legal basis of the pied-à-terre tax as a whole. Instead, it argues that the rollout has been botched. The plaintiffs — Rachel O’Brien, Carmine Morano and Simon Hedley — are New York City residents who say they were falsely targeted with the tax notices and are now scrambling to prove they live in their homes.
The pied-à-terre tax took effect July 1 and imposes a surcharge on high-value second homes. Mayor Zohran Mamdani has touted the measure as proof he is delivering on his campaign promise to tax the rich to fund his agenda. Matt Rauschenbach, a spokesman for the mayor, said the city disagrees with the ruling and plans to appeal, describing the surcharge as a way for owners of second homes worth $5 million or more to pay their fair share.
The judge suspended the deadlines tied to the mailed notices, including a Sept. 18 cutoff, and set the next hearing for the afternoon of Aug. 31.