NEW YORK — New York City landlords are suing to block the recently-approved rent freeze championed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
The complaint, filed in Staten Island Supreme Court, alleges Mamdani placed undue influence on the nine-member Rent Guidelines Board — which then cherry picked data to understate landlord costs and overstate incomes. The mayor-appointed panel voted 7-1 in favor of a rent freeze on one- and two-year leases. The decision will take effect on leases signed on or after Oct. 1.
The board “made a mockery of its statutory mandate, resorting to multiple manipulations of its own data to try to justify this irrational result. And this all comes amid unchecked inflation and rising costs that struggling landlords will have to bear to survive,” the lawsuit alleges…