New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is now facing a lawsuit over one of his legally-questionable, communist policies.
A coalition of landlords are suing to block Mamdani’s two-year rent freeze on almost one million rent-stabilized apartments.
The landlords argue that the policy is unlawful and places unfair burden on property owners, who are already getting pressed by rising costs and taxes.
In addition, they are accusing the (supposedly) independent Rent Guidelines Board of manipulating data simply to hand Mayor Mamdani a political victory.
New York City landlords are suing Mayor Mamdani to try and cancel his rent freeze.
They're alleging Mamdani loaded the Rent Guidelines Board to vote for the rent freeze and conspire against landlords. pic.twitter.com/rW2F7uGLrv
— Pubity (@pubity) July 23, 2026
Politico reported further on the details of the lawsuit:
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.
Mamdani ran on a marquee campaign pledge to freeze rents on the city’s 1 million rent-stabilized apartments, but has not explicitly called for a rent freeze since taking office.
“Once he assumed office, the Mayor went to extraordinary lengths to pack the Board with loyalists and then spent millions in City funds to fill the Board’s hearings with tenant advocates,” the lawsuit states.
Under Mayor Mamdani’s leadership, landlords are already being crushed by rising property taxes, utility bills and, especially, insurance costs due to the city’s left-wing policies.
If the rent freeze goes into effect, many of these landlords could be forced out of business, altogether.
One of the landlords suing Mamdani, Violet Zharku, spoke to the New York Post about the predicament she is facing:
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.
Attorney Randy Mastro, who is representing the landlords and previously served under former NYC Mayor Eric Adams, discussed the lawsuit further in this clip from Fox News:
IT’S OFFICIAL: Ugandan NYC Mayor Mamdani just got SUED, his draconian rent freeze might now be BLOCKED
Communism never works!
“We believe it will be found to be ILLEGAL.”
ADVERTISEMENT“This was a SHAM process to deliver a pre-determined outcome that the mayor directed by fiat. That is blatantly ILLEGAL.”
Get this 3rd world communist out of my country.
He’s a failure and NYC is cooked.
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