Posted on 08/08/2026 3:24:32 AM PDT by Libloather
A trio of Big Apple homeowners has filed suit to delay the state’s controversial new tax on luxury second homes — claiming Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration bungled the rollout and unfairly put the burden on homeowners.
The disgruntled owners charge that City Hall is unfairly burdening them by forcing them to prove they are full-time New Yorkers if they do not want to pay the pied-à-terre tax, according to the suit filed Friday in Staten Island Supreme Court.
The city Department of Finance “has arbitrarily and capriciously foisted onto New York City residents the burden of proving they are not subject to the Surcharge,” the filing states.
It also calls out the DOF’s move to publish a tax roll of nearly 1 million properties that may be subject to the new surcharge and the 17,000 notices it mailed to homeowners warning them they would be hit with five-figure bills unless they file for an exemption.
One of the plaintiffs, Mamdani-supporting Manhattanite Simon Hedley, told The Post he doesn’t take issue with the law itself – but opposes how the city is distributing the “threatening” notices.
Hedley, whose sole home is in Chelsea, has no idea how he ended up on Hizzoner’s list and said the onus to prove residency should be on the city.
“I just think that if they’re going to be in the rollout process, the Department of Finance is obviously managing it — they’ve got endless access to records to really get a fairly accurate idea about who’s resident and who isn’t,” Hedley told The Post Friday.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
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POWER USAGE IS RECORDED IN EVERY POWER BILL
HOW ELSE DO YOU THINK THEY WANT YOU TO HAVE “SMART” THERMOSTATS???
“PRIVACY?”
NOT WITH MAMDANI
“I really feel sorry for the clerks in the office that have to verify the documents and process the paperwork.”
That reminds me of the time I got the first “real ID” license plate.
I read the list of documents needed and brought a bunch of them just in case they were needed.
The clerk took one look at my original notarized birth certificate and said “that is good enough—I do not need to look at anything else”.
Bottom line—the clerks will eventually get tired of following the rules and will start making up their own—both good and bad.
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