Editor’s note: the pied-à-terre tax lawsuit is still moving. This page was written from public reporting as of August 10, 2026, updated on August 18, 2026 from the court docket, and updated again on August 25, 2026. It will be updated again as the case develops.

Update, August 25, 2026: we said we would note any change here, so here it is. The Department of Finance has extended the exemption application deadline a second time, from September 18 to October 6, 2026. The litigation did not do this. No court order or stipulation on the available record moved the date, and the August 10 order is still stayed on appeal. Everything below is left as written on August 10 and August 18, as the record of where the case stood then. The appeal window under 19 RCNY 62-06(b)(1) is the same filing and the same date. The City’s sworn court papers state that the emergency rule lets the Commissioner extend the deadline for good cause and that DOF extended it for any property owner that has not yet submitted such documentation until October 6, 2026 (O’Brien v. City of New York, NYSCEF Doc. 29, paragraphs 39 and 40, sworn August 25, 2026).

Case status as of August 18, 2026: the temporary restraining order signed on August 10 was stayed the same evening, when the City filed notice that it would seek permission to appeal, and on August 13 the Appellate Division, Second Department, confirmed the stay and granted leave to appeal. The rollout continues: the roll remains posted on the Department of Finance site, exemption applications are being taken and decided, and the deadline was unchanged by the case. On August 18 the petitioners amended the petition to add four more homeowners. The hearing before Justice Ozzi is still set for August 31.

On Monday, August 10, a Staten Island judge issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) blocking the rollout of the surcharge New Yorkers call the pied-à-terre tax and the Department of Finance calls the non-primary residence surcharge. The order came in a lawsuit filed days earlier by homeowners who say the rollout flagged the wrong properties, including their own primary homes. If you received a notice in July, or found your property on the city’s published roll, the natural question is whether any of it still applies to you. The short answer: the order was real but it lasted one evening, the tax is still on the books, and the careful move is to act as if your deadlines still stand. For the surcharge itself, who pays and who qualifies for exemption, start with our full non-primary residence surcharge explainer.

What did the court actually order?

Justice Wayne Ozzi of the State Supreme Court in Richmond County issued the TRO in the pied-à-terre tax lawsuit on August 10 in O’Brien v. City of New York, Index No. 85217/2026. As reported by Gothamist and CBS New York, while the court order was in effect:

• The city had to take down the public roll of roughly 960,000 records it had posted in connection with the surcharge.
• The order barred the city from sending additional surcharge notices.
• The city could not grant exemptions or determine that any owner is subject to the tax.
• For the roughly 17,000 owners who received the July notice, surcharge collection and enforcement were on hold.

The TRO was written to hold at least until oral arguments on August 31, unless it was stayed on appeal before then. City Hall said that could happen as soon as the Law Department filed.

Update, August 18: that is what happened. The Law Department filed its affirmation of intention to seek permission to appeal on the evening of August 10, which stayed the order automatically under state law, and on August 13 Associate Justice Phillip Hom of the Appellate Division, Second Department, signed an order confirming the stay while the appeal is pending. The order above has therefore not been in force since the night it was signed: the roll remains posted, the Department of Finance is deciding exemption applications, and nothing in the case changed the deadline.

Who filed the pied-à-terre tax lawsuit?

Three Staten Island homeowners, Simon Hedley, Rachel O’Brien and Carmine Morano, filed the petition in the pied-à-terre tax lawsuit on August 7, represented by Randy Mastro of Dechert LLP. They say their homes are primary residences that the rollout swept in anyway, one of them onto the published roll. The case challenges how the surcharge was administered, the roll and the notices. It does not ask the court to strike down the tax law itself.

Is the pied-à-terre tax gone?

No. The statute, Article 30-C of the New York Tax Law, was not struck down, and the petition does not ask for that. What the court paused is the machinery: the roll, the notices, the determinations.

City Hall said the Law Department would appeal immediately, and that the appeal would put the order on hold and allow implementation to continue. That is what happened, and the process resumed where it stopped. If the surcharge proceeds, it is still scheduled to appear for the first time on the January 1, 2027 property tax bill.

Does the pied-à-terre tax lawsuit change the filing deadline?

No court has changed the exemption filing date. The Department of Finance has. The date announced on August 1 replaced the August 21 and August 24 dates printed on the July notices, and DOF has since extended it again to October 6, 2026.

Update, August 18: still no change from the court, and with the order stayed on appeal there is no pause either.

Here is the practical problem the pause created. The order was lifted on appeal within hours, so the clock is exactly where it was before the ruling, and October 6 is close. An owner who spent the pause assembling documentation lost nothing either way. An owner who read the headline as a cancellation may be starting from zero with days to spare.

Treat October 6 as live unless the Department of Finance or a court formally changes it. We will note any change here.

What should owners do right now?

• Keep everything. The July notice, the envelope, and the security code printed on it are all part of a clean response.
• Know where your property stands: the market value the Department of Finance carries for it, which side of the threshold that value falls on, and which of the five exemption categories fits your situation. pied-a-terre.mgnyconsulting.com/check shows the first two without an account.
• Have the documentation ready. Determinations are not frozen: the order has been stayed on appeal since the evening of August 10, the Department of Finance is deciding applications, and owners’ deadlines never moved.
• Watch August 31. The hearing before Justice Ozzi is the next scheduled event in the case; the Appellate Division has already kept the stay in place while the City’s appeal proceeds.

Where does this leave you?

A pause that lasted one evening, in a pied-à-terre tax lawsuit over how the rollout was administered, is not a reason to un-prepare. It is a reminder that owners who respond precisely, with the right documents and the right exemption category, are in a strong position, whatever the courts decide.

MGNY Consulting is a property tax consultancy, not a law firm, and is not affiliated with the NYC Department of Finance. This article is general information about a pending case based on public reporting, not legal advice. Owners with questions about the litigation itself should consult an attorney.

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