Stabilized tenants keep zero increase for Oct. 1 leases as landlord challenge drags on

Rent-stabilized tenants whose new or renewal lease begins Oct. 1 will see no increase, at least for now. A Manhattan judge left the Rent Guidelines Board’s freeze in place and would not promise to settle a landlord lawsuit before that date.

Judge Brendan Lantry expects a decision before the year is out. Two issues are in front of him. The first is whether the board’s June vote was legal. The second is whether rents for these leases have to be set again from scratch. “We are working as expeditiously as we can to resolve this case,” Lantry said.

What the rent freeze means for one- and two-year leases

In June, the board voted for a zero increase on rent-stabilized leases of one and two years, covering both new leases and renewals. That figure holds while the litigation continues.

The landlords asked the court to temporarily bring back what the previous board approved in 2025, a 3 percent bump on one-year terms and 4.5 percent on two-year terms. Lantry refused. In his view, a court has no power to put those numbers into effect before the case is decided.

Why landlords sued the Rent Guidelines Board

A month after the vote, a group of landlords went to court. Randy Mastro, who served as first deputy mayor in the Eric Adams administration, is representing them. Their suit claims the board ignored data on rising costs for owners, settled on the result ahead of time and acted to carry out Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s campaign promise to “freeze the rent.” City Hall and the board both stand behind the freeze, and they maintain that the board operates independently of the mayor.

Mamdani appointed six of the nine members once he took office. The remaining three were Adams picks. One of them, Christina Smyth, who represented landlords on the board, stepped down a few hours ahead of the June vote.

The landlords want to learn whether officials swayed the board, and Lantry has ordered the Mamdani administration to produce records of contacts between top City Hall officials and board members. His earlier order reached back through the year leading up to the freeze and included emails and texts. The city did not meet the Sept. 23 deadline, and on Thursday Corporation Counsel Steven Banks told the judge the records could not be delivered on schedule.

Under the new timeline, City Hall must hand over screenshots of the messages by Sept. 29. Metadata is not required with that first batch. The full records are due within 30 days.