New York City defends pied-à-terre tax rollout in court filing

Filing tallies 5,544 responses to 17,000 primary-residence notices

New York City lawyers defended the rollout of the new pied-à-terre tax in a court filing Tuesday, arguing that the administration complied with the law when it posted online last month a list of about 900,000 homes and their owners that might be targeted by the coming tax. The city acknowledged that the launch created confusion among some property owners, even though only a fraction of the listed properties would ultimately be subject to the surcharge.

Some longtime New Yorkers were puzzled over their inclusion on the list, while others complained that the publication was an invasion of privacy. The city “has taken steps following its publication to address confusion expressed by some property owners,” its lawyers said in the filing. Those steps include adding language on the city’s websites — including as recently as Monday — clarifying that most of the properties on the list would not be subject to the tax.

The filing responded to a lawsuit brought this month by a group of property owners accusing the city of botching the rollout. After an initial hearing, a judge paused the launch. The city appealed and succeeded in putting the lower court’s order on hold, and another hearing is scheduled for next week.

The city subsequently mailed 17,000 notices to a more targeted set of property owners who needed to prove their home was their primary residence or face being subject to the tax. The city said in Tuesday’s filing that it has received 5,544 submissions from property owners providing documents that they say show their homes are their primary residences, and it has approved 2,892 of those submissions.

Since the notices were sent, the city received tax filing information from New York state that helped identify an additional 1,210 property owners who were not subject to the new surcharge, according to the city’s lawyers.

Randy Mastro, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said the city should have used the tax information before sending out the notices to homeowners. “They were supposed to do the homework on the front end,” he said. He called the city’s filing a “damning admission of a massive screw-up of the Mamdani administration.”

New York state lawmakers passed the tax last year at the urging of Mamdani, a Democratic socialist who campaigned on a promise to increase taxes on the wealthy and major corporations. The new surcharge targets second homes in the city worth more than $5 million.

Mamdani drew criticism earlier this year when he announced the pied-à-terre tax outside billionaire financier Ken Griffin’s $238 million apartment in Manhattan. He drew criticism again when the 17,000 notices were sent out and he wrote on X that second-home owners should check their mailboxes.