The Mamdani administration recently launched a new policy labeled the Housing Court Fast Track, which aims to speed up legal proceedings against building owners for issues like vacate orders, questionable rental charges, elevator outages, and hazardous conditions. This initiative promises that city-initiated claims involving repairs mandated by the Housing and Preservation Department will now receive a scheduled court appearance within five days or less.
While the administration frames this as a necessary step to address monthslong backlogs in the court system, it has sparked significant pushback from those who manage properties and navigate the legal system on behalf of owners. The core of the criticism is that this directive addresses only one side of the housing court crisis.
While the city accelerates cases involving building maintenance, landlords remain stuck in a massive, slow-moving system for their own grievances. As reported by the NY Post, landlords reportedly file as many as 120,000 unpaid rent cases annually, which currently account for nearly 80% of all housing court proceedings across the five boroughs.
Property owners are against the policy
Under the existing system, these cases can reportedly take up to 50 days just for a first appearance. Critics argue that the new fast-track plan effectively creates a two-tier system where tenant-related issues receive priority while property owners are left waiting for years to resolve financial disputes.
Landlord lawyer Deborah Riegel of Rosenberg & Estis summarized the frustration clearly when she said, “It’s almost like, you know, you’ve got an HOV lane for the tenants … and you’ve got the traffic backed up for miles for the owners.” This sentiment is shared by many in the industry who believe the policy reflects a broader political agenda.
Valentina Gojcaj, a property manager at Onesource, suggested that the administration’s focus is intentional given Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s well-known history of anti-landlord rhetoric. Gojcaj told the NY Post, “I think that’s part of his agenda — I mean, he’s made it clear he doesn’t believe in private ownership.”
To illustrate the severity of the delays, Gojcaj pointed to a troubling incident at one of her firm’s Bronx apartment complexes. A tenant reportedly installed an illegal washing machine that eventually crashed through the ceiling into the unit below, resulting in a neighbor being sent to the emergency room.
Despite the danger and the ongoing legal attempts to address the violations, the tenant reportedly remains in the apartment and currently owes approximately $30,000 in arrears as of this month. Gojcaj claims that her firm has multiple active cases that have been pending for years.
In one instance, a tenant has reportedly not paid rent since 2022 and currently owes the company over $71,000. She explained the difficulty of the process by stating, “She’s not getting evicted because the judge won’t let us issue a warrant, which by the way takes six months to get processed.”
Mayor Mamdani defended the new policy by emphasizing the need to target the most complex and dangerous building issues. During his announcement, he stated, “This fast-track will accelerate the cases that are both the most egregious and the most complex.” He specifically highlighted situations where at least one-third of units in a building are subject to vacate orders or lack essential services like heat, hot water, gas, or electricity.
Published: Sep 7, 2026 02:15 pm