A coalition of New York City landlords launched a bid Wednesday to smack down Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s rent freeze — calling it a rigged “sham” that relied on “manipulated data” in a new lawsuit.
The group sued the city’s Rent Guidelines Board in Staten Island Supreme Court, challenging as “unlawful” the panel’s June 25 decision to freeze rents on 1 million stabilized units for two years.
They claim the nine-member board skewed its own data, ignoring a slew of economic conditions to justify a “predetermined,” “irrational result” and deliver a political victory for Mamdani — who famously campaigned on a promise to “freeze the rent.”
“The [Rent Guidelines Board]’s June 25 determination was the result of a corrupted and compromised process: a statutory mandate flouted and disregarded, an independent agency held captive, and an outcome wired and predetermined from inception,” the suit claims.
Mamdani, according to the filing, accomplished this by stacking the independent board with loyalist tenant activists — and spent more than $5 million in taxpayer dollars via his controversial Office of Mass Engagement with a “goal of promoting the freeze outcome, not facilitating neutral civic engagement.”
Mamdani — who appointed six of the current RGB members — has argued the board was independent.
The landlords, who together own over 100 rent-stabilized units, ask a state judge to block the freeze before it can take effect in October.
“If allowed to stand, Order #58 will impose severe, irreparable harm” on the plaintiffs “and similarly-situated landlords (who stand to lose their properties), while setting a dangerous precedent that the RGB’s independence can be cast aside by Mayoral fiat,” the suit states.
One landlord who is part of the suit, Violet Zharku, said the amount of money she makes from renting her 50 units will no longer keep up with the costs of running and repairing the apartments, forcing her family to look for other income streams to keep the three fully stabilized buildings in minimum shape.
“Freezing the rent does not freeze my mortgage, property taxes, insurance, water and sewer bills, utility costs or the cost of repairs,” she said.
Zharku, whose family saved for years working as superintendents, purchased the three buildings over the past few years, and has invested over $300,000 in capital improvements.
But rising expenses – most notably skyrocketing insurance costs — have driven nearly all of the buildings into the red, and one of them, in Astoria, is now listed for sale, the suit states.
“We are losing $172,000 annually,” Zharku previously told The Post, citing skyrocketing expenses.
“We can no longer invest in capital improvements or apartment renovations beyond critical repairs and we have no choice but to sell the buildings that we have spent generations maintaining,” she said.
Zharku and two other landlords involved in the suit also said that rental non-payment was a major issue, with over $70,000 owed across her portfolio.
One property owner claimed $90,000 in unpaid rent at a Bronx building. Another landlord — whose family has owned and self-managed their Queens building since 1974 — was owed $70,000 in rent, with over $25,000 owed by a single tenant, according to the suit.
“The Board did not truly consider the consequences for buildings like these because the outcome was determined before the evidence was heard,” the suit states.
The landlords also seek an expedited discovery request for all communications regarding the RGB vote between the mayor and several of his offices — including the OME and one headed by tenant activist Cea Weaver.
“There is no actual basis for an across- the-board rent freeze here, and the Board’s decision must be overturned,” said attorney Randy Mastro, who represents the landlords and previously worked for then-Mayor Eric Adam’s administration.
“That is not the way government decisions by independent boards are supposed to be made,” he said, calling the suit “a check on the mayor’s abuse of power.”
City Hall spokesperson Matt Rauschenbach said the RGB was “an independent body” and that the Mamdani administration was “confident that the Board evaluated all of the relevant data and considered the factors facing both tenants and landlords across New York City.”
“The Law Department is prepared to defend the RGB’s decisions,” Rauschenbach added.
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