New York City’s new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, wasted no time making waves. Just days after taking office, Mamdani signed an executive order on January 4, 2026, launching a sweeping citywide initiative: the “Rental Ripoff” hearings. These public hearings, set to take place across all five boroughs within his first 100 days, aim to give tenants a direct line to City Hall, letting them air grievances about everything from unsafe building conditions to those sneaky, hidden fees that seem to creep into every rent bill.
According to official city statements and reporting from multiple sources, including the city’s own website and local news outlets, the hearings will be run by a coalition of city agencies. The Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, the Department of Buildings, and the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection are all on board, working in close coordination with the newly minted Office of Mass Engagement. The goal? To shine a spotlight on what the administration calls “unconscionable business practices” in the city’s rental market—and to act on them.
“Too many New Yorkers are getting ripped off—paying obscene rents for apartments that fail basic health and safety standards. When tenants speak up, landlords threaten eviction. That ends now,” Mamdani declared on X (formerly Twitter), as reported by several news outlets. “Today we launched a citywide crackdown on rental ripoffs, like landlord neglect and outrageous fees.”
The hearings won’t just be a platform for complaints. Testimony from tenants, advocacy groups, legal service providers, landlords, and property managers will be collected, analyzed, and used to inform both enforcement priorities and future policy proposals. Within 90 days of the last hearing, a joint summary and report will be published, detailing common themes and outlining a plan for the city to address harmful landlord practices. This report will be made available to the public on city agency websites, ensuring transparency and accountability.
On day one, Mamdani also moved to rebuild the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants, appointing Cea Weaver—a key architect of the 2019 Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act—to lead the charge. This signaled a clear shift in priorities at City Hall, with tenant protection taking center stage.
Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice Julie Su underscored the administration’s new direction, stating, “There is no economic justice without safe, quality, affordable housing New Yorkers can live in. This is not just about building new housing, it’s also about enforcing the laws in existing housing.” Su emphasized that the Rental Ripoff hearings aren’t just a listening exercise: “City Hall will not only be listening, we will take action to ensure that the law is followed without exception and that New Yorkers know their rights when it comes to the often hidden or deceptive fees associated with the hunt for housing.”
Cea Weaver, now Director of the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants, echoed the urgency. “For too long, tenants have been ripped off without recourse or protection. Our Rental Ripoff hearings will give working people across the five boroughs a microphone to highlight the challenges they face and make New York City government a truly participatory endeavor,” she said, as reported by the city’s official channels. “By hearing from New Yorkers about the challenges they have faced, we can bring a truly comprehensive approach to address the shoddy conditions, hidden fees, and other ripoffs that have persisted until now.”
The city’s affordability crisis, which has left millions of working New Yorkers struggling, is a central concern. “Amid an affordability crisis crushing millions of working New Yorkers, tenants are being burdened by excessive and hidden fees — from amenity fees to processing fees. This administration will make sure every New Yorker knows their rights and knows they have a champion in city government who will not back down from the fight to make this city more affordable, fair, and just,” said Sam Levine, Commissioner of the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection.
The executive order is explicit in its intent. It calls for at least one hearing in each borough, with participation from a wide range of stakeholders—including the New York City Commission on Human Rights. All relevant mayoral agencies are required to cooperate, and enforcement of housing and consumer protection laws is to be prioritized. The order also mandates operational improvements aimed at faster correction of violations and better coordination among agencies.
Tenant advocates have greeted the move with enthusiasm, pointing to a long-standing need for stronger enforcement and more transparency. Many renters have faced not just rising rents, but a proliferation of additional fees—application charges, amenity surcharges, payment processing costs—that can make an already expensive city even harder to afford. The hearings, they argue, offer a rare chance for tenants’ voices to help shape real policy.
But not everyone is convinced the crackdown will have the intended effect. Some critics, drawing historical parallels, have likened Mamdani’s targeting of landlords to the treatment of “Kulaks” in Soviet times—a class of property owners accused of exploiting the masses. As one commentator wrote, “In NYC under Mamdani, Kulaks are called landlords. We know how this will end. The housing situation will become even worse because landlords will walk away from unprofitable properties, and there is zero incentive to purchase or expand rental units when you have been targeted by a heartless politicized bureaucracy.” This view warns that aggressive regulation could lead to landlords abandoning the market, ultimately reducing housing supply and exacerbating the very crisis the city seeks to address.
Still, the administration insists that the initiative is about fairness, not scapegoating. The executive order spells out the rationale in detail: most New Yorkers are tenants, entitled to safe and habitable homes. Negligent and dishonest landlords, the order says, “must no longer endanger the health and safety of New Yorkers through hazardous code violations, untimely repairs, repeated noncompliance, and unlawful fees and price-gouging.” The city’s approach is to use every tool available—enforcement, improved code compliance, consumer protection powers, and new policy interventions—to protect tenants and hold bad actors accountable.
Details about the Rental Ripoff hearings, including dates and locations, will be posted at nyc.gov/RentalRipoff as they become available. The city encourages tenants, advocacy organizations, and landlords alike to participate, promising that every voice will be heard. The hearings themselves represent a rare experiment in participatory government, and their outcome could shape the city’s rental market for years to come.
As New York City embarks on this ambitious campaign, the stakes couldn’t be higher. With rents soaring and tenant frustrations mounting, Mamdani’s administration is betting that direct engagement and robust enforcement can tip the balance toward a fairer, more livable city. Whether this gamble pays off—or backfires—remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: for the city’s renters, the microphone is finally theirs.