The Legal Aid Society, together with Legal Services NYC and Selendy & Gay PLLC, intervened on behalf of tenants’ rights groups Tenants and Neighbors, Community Voices Heard, and the Coalition for the Homeless against a landlord challenge seeking to strike down New York’s rent stabilization laws as unconstitutional as applied to every single regulated unit. The plaintiffs – seven landlords and two landlord associations – sought to fundamentally reshape New York’s economy and social fabric, replacing the economic policy choices of five decades of democratically-elected state and local governments with that of their bottom lines and to jeopardize the stable housing of millions of tenants.  

The district court ruled decisively, holding that New York’s rent stabilization laws are not unconstitutional and do not constitute a physical or regulatory taking, in granting our motion to dismiss. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit agreed, ruling that the rent stabilization laws neither compel a landlord to offer her property for rent nor prohibit her in perpetuity from terminating tenancy. The landlords took their challenge to the Supreme Court. The Court declined to take up the case in October 2023, and later denied certiorari on four other related cases in which Legal Aid represented intervenor tenant groups.  

Related Matters

74 Pinehurst et al. v. State of New York, et al.
Landlords challenged New York’s rent stabilization laws as constituting a taking. Dismissed by Second Circuit, cert petition denied. 

335-7 LLC et al. v. City of New York, et al.
Landlords challenged New York’s rent stabilization laws as constituting a taking. Dismissed by Second Circuit, cert petition denied. 

Building & Realty Institute of Westchester and Putnam Counties et al. v. State of New York et al. 
Landlords challenged changes made to the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act in 2019 as effecting physical and as-applied takings. Dismissed by Second Circuit, cert petition denied.  

G-Max Management v. State of New York. Landlords challenged changes made to the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act in 2019 as effecting physical and as-applied takings. Dismissed by Second Circuit, cert petition denied.