17,000 NYC Second-Home Tax Notices Voided; City Appeals
The tax targets homes over $5M and condos and co-ops over $1M, and the city projects at least $500M a year.
Three owners of second homes beat New York City in Staten Island Supreme Court, and Justice Wayne Ozzi’s order voided about 17,000 pied-a-terre tax warning notices; the city appealed and says the appeal keeps the rollout running.
Why it matters
The petitioners are Rachel O’Brien, Carmine Morano and Simon Hedley, represented by Randy Mastro, per CPA Practice Advisor. Reporting says the court found the Department of Finance cannot list an owner and then make that owner prove residency, and must make its own individualized determination first. Mastro said the administration “failed to follow state law when it burdened New York City homeowners with proving they live in their own homes,” per InvestmentNews.
The numbers
The surcharge applies to one-, two- and three-family homes valued at $5 million or more and to condos and co-ops valued at $1 million or more, and the city projects at least $500 million a year. About 900,000 properties sit in the city’s online database, and roughly 2,000 owners have challenged their status. Reporting dates the exemption filing deadline to Oct. 6, bills to Nov. 15 and first payments to Jan. 1, 2027. The ruling date is reported as both Sept. 29 and Sept. 30, and we could not retrieve the order itself, so we have not confirmed the index number or the exact wording.
What’s next
The Law Department appealed, and spokesman Matthew Rauschenbach said the automatic stay lets the city continue implementation, per the Oct. 1 report. Watch whether the Appellate Division keeps that stay in place, and whether owners treat Oct. 6 as binding. For the wider market picture, see the New York market page.
On the record
What we checked ourselves, and where you can check it too.
- Our dataTwo outlets disagree on the ruling date (Sept. 29 versus Sept. 30), and the NYSCEF decision is not retrievable by script, so we date the order only to the week of Sept. 28. We did not find the index number or the order text, and we state the grounds as reported, not as read from the order.View the record on investmentnews.com
- Public recordReports agree on the petitioners (Rachel O'Brien, Carmine Morano and Simon Hedley), the judge (Justice Wayne Ozzi, Staten Island), the voided notice count (about 17,000) and the thresholds ($5M for one- to three-family homes, $1M for condos and co-ops). Reporting also gives Oct. 6 as the exemption filing deadline, Nov. 15 for bills and Jan. 1, 2027 for first payments.View the record on cpapracticeadvisor.com
Sources
- CPA Practice Advisor, Oct. 1, 2026City Law Department appeals; spokesman says the automatic stay lets implementation continue
- CPA Practice Advisor, Sept. 29, 2026Justice Wayne Ozzi strikes down the rollout; plaintiffs Rachel O'Brien, Carmine Morano, Simon Hedley
- InvestmentNewsPetitioners represented by Randy Mastro; about 17,000 notices voided; Oct. 6 exemption deadline