Staten Island judge orders landlords’ lawsuit challenging historic two-year freeze on one million rent-stabilised apartments transferred to Manhattan court.
New York City Hall claimed an early procedural victory on Friday in a high-stakes legal battle over Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s signature rent freeze, after a Staten Island judge ruled that a landlords’ lawsuit challenging the policy must be moved to Manhattan.
Justice Ralph J. Porzio of Staten Island Supreme Court ordered the case transferred to New York County (Manhattan), finding that the proper venue lies where the Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) made its decision, not in Richmond County. The ruling pauses further hearings on the substance of the challenge while the case is relocated.
“This venue motion… had to be decided, and I’ve decided it this way,” Porzio said, noting he had been prepared to rule on the merits given the case’s “enormity and the impact.”
NYC Rent Freeze Approved for 1 Million Rent-Stabilized Apartments:
In late June 2026, the nine-member RGB voted 7-1 to impose a zero percent increase on both one-year and two-year leases for roughly one million rent-stabilised apartments across the five boroughs. The freeze, the first of its kind covering both lease lengths in the board’s history, applies to new leases beginning on or after 1 October 2026 and running through September 2027.
The decision fulfilled a central campaign pledge by Mamdani, a democratic socialist who took office in January 2026 promising to ease New York’s crushing cost of living. Rent-stabilised units account for about 40 percent of the city’s rental stock and house an estimated two million people, many of them working-class and middle-income tenants in buildings constructed before 1974 or receiving certain tax benefits.
Mamdani, who appointed six of the board’s members, called the vote “a historic victory for New York City tenants” and “the relief that working people across our city deserve.” Tenant advocates packed the East Harlem hearing and celebrated the outcome as a rare check on soaring housing costs in one of the world’s most expensive cities.
NYC Rent Freeze Lawsuit Moves to Manhattan Court:
Landlords responded with a lawsuit filed in July in Staten Island Supreme Court. Represented by former First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro, a group of property owners argued the RGB process was a “sham” with a predetermined outcome. They accused Mamdani of stacking the board with loyalists, spending city funds to mobilise tenant testimony, and relying on manipulated data that understated owners’ rising costs for insurance, taxes, maintenance and utilities.
The complaint seeks to vacate the freeze order and force the board to approve increases instead. Landlords warn that a prolonged freeze risks deferred maintenance, building distress and reduced housing supply in a city already facing a severe shortage. City lawyers immediately challenged the choice of Staten Island as venue, arguing the board sits in Manhattan and the decision was made there. The judge agreed.
New York’s housing crisis has long been defined by extreme inequality: market-rate median rents hover near $4,000 a month while many stabilised tenants pay far less. Previous freezes under Mayor Bill de Blasio applied only to one-year leases. Critics of the current policy, including some economists and real-estate groups, contend that freezing rents without addressing landlords’ operating costs could accelerate the deterioration of the very housing stock the freeze is meant to protect.
Supporters counter that years of modest increases failed to produce meaningful improvements for tenants and that the freeze offers immediate relief amid stagnant wages and high inflation in essential goods.
The procedural transfer does not resolve the underlying questions of whether the RGB acted lawfully or whether mayoral influence crossed legal lines. Those issues will now be litigated in Manhattan, where the case is expected to attract intense scrutiny from tenant groups, housing advocates and the real-estate industry. For millions of New Yorkers living in stabilised apartments, the freeze remains scheduled to take effect in October unless a court intervenes. The early venue ruling buys the Mamdani administration time and home-court advantage, but the landmark fight over the future of rent regulation in America’s largest city is far from over.