Lawyer for NYC landlords sues Zohran Mamdani for ‘blatantly illegal’ rent freeze

Attorney Randy Mastro is representing a coalition of New York City landlords in a lawsuit challenging Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s decision to impose a rent freeze.The lawsuit comes after New York City’s Rent Guidelines Board voted last month to approve Mamdani’s pledge to freeze rent for nearly 1 million rent-stabilized apartments. Mamdani, a socialist elected on a platform centered on housing affordability, argued the freeze would provide relief to tenants facing persistent high living costs.Landlord groups, however, contend the policy ignores rising operating expenses and threatens the financial viability of rent-stabilized housing. “It’s a simple proposition. An independent board statutorily required to weigh all the evidence and fairly consider the data instead perverted a process at the mayor’s behest to deliver on his campaign promise. This was a sham process to deliver a predetermined outcome that the mayor directed by fiat. That is blatantly illegal,” Mastro said on Fox News’s America Reports Thursday. 🚨 IT'S OFFICIAL: Ugandan NYC Mayor Mamdani just got SUED, his draconian rent freeze might now be BLOCKEDCommunism never works! "We believe it will be found to be ILLEGAL.""This was a SHAM process to deliver a pre-determined outcome that the mayor directed by fiat. That is… pic.twitter.com/bC5gHpn2M8— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) July 23, 2026 Mastro argued the Rent Guidelines Board abandoned its statutory obligation to independently evaluate economic data and instead rubber-stamped the mayor’s campaign promise.“The ramifications of it are profound. More than a million New Yorkers live in rent-stabilized apartments. That’s thousands of landlords, many of them struggling to survive because we’re living in a period of inflation rising, the cost of landlords’ soaring taxes, utilities, insurance. Yet somehow this board, under the mayor’s influence, came to the conclusion that zero rent increase was warranted. Not supported by the data,” Mastro said.PANEL APPROVES MAMDANI’S RENT FREEZE FOR NEARLY 1 MILLION NYC APARTMENTSMastro also pointed to the resignation of longtime board member Alex Armlovich, who reportedly stepped down on the morning of the vote. “Don’t just take my word for it, a longtime board member quit the morning of the vote,” he said. Armlovich, who was appointed by former Mayor Eric Adams to a four-year term, said he resigned to take on a full-time job as a program officer at the philanthropy group Coefficient Giving. Mastro argued the departure underscored concerns about the integrity of the process and noted that the board did not properly follow policies. “The board did not properly consider statutory criteria, and we believe it will be found illegal,” he said.