The Rent Guidelines Board’s June decision to freeze the rent for nearly 1 million apartments on Oct. 1 now rests in the hands of a Manhattan Supreme Court judge set to rule in the coming days.
Supreme Court Judge Brendan Lantry heard arguments Wednesday in a lawsuit filed by a group of seven landlords suing to halt the rent freeze over allegations of foul play by Mayor Zohran Mamdani and a lack of independent analysis data in the Board’s decision-making process. The nearly six-hour hearing on Sept. 2 saw lawyers for the city and the landlords bringing the suit quarrel over the 7-1 June vote from the Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) to freeze the rent on both one- and two-year rent-stabilized leases — the first time the board’s made such a decision in the city’s history — and something Mamdani promised on the campaign trail.
