Since the last week of July, the phrase people type into Google most often about this tax is some version of the list: the pied-à-terre tax list, the NYC pied-à-terre list, the second home tax list of properties. The question behind it is always the same one. Is my property on it, and what does that mean for me? This page answers that in the order the answers actually matter.

Is there a list, and am I on it?

There are two things people mean by “the list”, and they are not the same.

The first is the supplemental market value roll, also called the assessment roll addendum, which the Department of Finance published on July 24, 2026. It is a database of properties that may be subject to the surcharge, with a Phase One market value for each. It is public, and within days it had been scraped into name-and-address lists that circulated online. Being on it means very little on its own: the Department of Finance itself says that the vast majority of properties on that roll will not be subject, because the roll lists all one- to three-family homes and all condominium and cooperative properties, not only the flagged ones. Press analysis counted roughly 24,300 properties on it above the value threshold, about 17,500 of them condo or co-op units.

The second is the mailing. The Department of Finance sent a notice, dated July 22, 2026, to the owners it actually believes may owe the surcharge. That is roughly 17,000 letters, and that number, not the roll, is the one that describes who the city is asking to respond. If a letter with a red box and a unique security code arrived at your address, you are on the list that matters. If it did not, and your property is on the public roll, you are in the group the Department of Finance expects will not be subject.

The two numbers are quoted together so often that the Mayor himself called out the mix-up on August 3, describing “both a willful and an unintentional conflation of both the property tax roll and these letters.” Keep them apart and the picture is simple: the roll is who might be, the letter is who is being asked.

Update, August 18, 2026. The roll is also the subject of a lawsuit, O’Brien v. City of New York in Richmond County Supreme Court, in which Justice Wayne Ozzi signed a temporary restraining order on August 10 directing the city to stop posting the roll and barring it from imposing or collecting the surcharge without first making an individual primary-residence determination; the city moved to appeal the same day, which stayed the order automatically under state law, and on August 13 the Appellate Division, Second Department, left that stay in place until the parties return before Justice Ozzi on August 31. As of today the roll is still posted on the Department of Finance site, exemption applications are still being taken and decided, and nothing in the case has moved the September 18 deadline.

What does the letter actually say?

The notice tells you three things. That the city’s records do not currently show a qualifying primary resident at the property. What the Department of Finance says the property is worth, which is the number the surcharge would be calculated on. And a deadline by which to respond through the portal at nyc.gov/npsurcharge, using the security code printed on the letter.

The deadline printed on the letter is August 21, 2026 for homes and condominiums and August 24, 2026 for cooperative units. Those printed dates are superseded. On August 1, 2026 the Mayor and the Finance Commissioner extended the deadline to a single date, September 18, 2026, for everyone who received a notice. The letter was not reprinted, so the red box still shows the earlier date. September 18 is the one that counts.

How do I check my own property?

You do not need the scraped lists, and you should not rely on them: they were assembled from the roll, so they include tens of thousands of properties that will owe nothing, and they were made without anyone checking whether a primary resident lives there. The right way is to look up your own lot.

MGNY’s free instant check does exactly that. Enter your address, or your borough-block-lot number if you know it, and it shows the value the Department of Finance placed on your property for this tax year and what the surcharge would cost each year if no exemption is granted. It is free, it does not require an account, and it draws on the same assessment data the notices were built from.

What it cannot tell you is whether you are exempt, because that depends on who lives there, which is not in any public record. That is the second half of the question, and it is the half where the letter can be answered.

I received a letter. Does that mean I owe the tax?

No. It means the city’s records, as of January 5, 2026, did not show a qualifying primary resident. The surcharge is not owed when any one of five people uses the property as their primary residence: the owner; a tenant or subtenant; one or more individuals who together hold a majority interest in the LLC, corporation, or partnership that owns it; an immediate family member of the owner or majority holder; or the sole beneficiary of a trust that holds it. A tenant on that path must be a natural person, so an LLC tenant does not qualify, and there is no one-year lease requirement.

The exemption is not automatic. Somebody has to tell the Department of Finance which relationship applies, with documents, through the portal, by September 18. The core document is one of the most recent federal or state income tax return showing the address, or a driver’s license or other DMV-issued identification; where neither is available, a voter identification card plus one other proof. Family relationships need a marriage or birth certificate or an affidavit; the tenant path needs the lease plus the tenant’s own residency documents; entities and trusts need their organizational documents plus an officer or trustee affidavit.

What if I ignore it?

If no exemption is granted, the surcharge is added to the January 1, 2027 property tax bill and billed semi-annually after that. It applies to the whole market value once the threshold is crossed, not just the amount above it. For a condominium or cooperative unit that means 4% of value from $1 million to $3 million, 5.25% from $3 million to $5 million, and 6.5% above that; for a one- to three-family home, 0.8% from $5 million to $15 million, 1.05% from $15 million to $25 million, and 1.3% above. Existing abatements do not offset it. After a determination there are two appeal routes, a review with the Department of Finance and a value challenge at the Tax Commission on Form TC107, but responding before September 18 is simpler than either.

What does it cost to ask MGNY?

Nothing. A real person answers at (212) 343-1111, right away, and the consultation is free. You engage us only if you want the response handled for you. MGNY has worked NYC property tax since 2008, across 900+ tax abatement developments, with $23.6M in tax refunds secured for owners.

Sources: NYC Department of Finance, nyc.gov/npsurcharge, program page and portal, read August 2026; Mayor’s Office release of July 22, 2026 announcing the mailing and of August 1, 2026 announcing the deadline extension; City Hall briefing of August 3, 2026 as reported by the New York Daily News; Hell Gate’s analysis of the published roll; the adopted rule at 19 RCNY 62; coverage of O’Brien v. City of New York (Richmond County Supreme Court, Index No. 85217/2026) in JURIST, amNewYork and the New York Daily News, August 12 to 14, 2026, and the Department of Finance website as read August 18, 2026.

Share on: