August 25, 2026 NEW YORK, NY New York City is launching a major offensive against bad landlords, putting an immediate end to multi-year legal delays that have left thousands of tenants trapped in unsafe, deteriorating apartments.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced an administrative order Tuesday morning outside Manhattan Civil Court designed to fast-track housing court cases involving immediately hazardous conditions, vacate orders, and court-ordered transfers of property management.
"Having a home with heat and hot water, a home free of pests and mold, a home you can live in, raise a family in: That is justice on the broadest scale," Mamdani said. "That is exactly what we are here to deliver today."
Under the new administrative order, eligible housing cases will be assigned to a judge on the exact day they are filed. Defendants will then have just five days to appear in court—a sharp departure from the typical months-long delays that routinely plague the system.
Key Features of the Expedited Court Process:
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Same-Day Judge Assignments: Cases involving hazardous conditions or 7A management transfers are assigned immediately upon filing.
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Strict 5-Day Appearance Window: Landlords faces strict deadlines to show up in court or risk severe legal penalties.
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Aggressive Enforcement: Failure to comply with the accelerated timeline opens property owners up to contempt charges and financial damages.
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Expanded Judicial Roster: The state court system agreed to increase the number of judges assigned to hear emergency housing and management transfer cases.
The policy targets so-called "7A proceedings," which allow the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) or a coalition of one-third of a building’s tenants to petition for a court-appointed administrator to strip negligent owners of their management powers.
HPD Commissioner Dina Levy noted that chronic court delays historically allowed building conditions to rot further, drastically driving up repair costs.
"Ultimately the city needs to come in and repair them, so this will be a huge tool that we will layer with other tools to really pursue those landlords who are willfully negligent," Levy said.
Legal advocates praised the aggressive timeline as a long-overdue mechanism to hold bad actors accountable.
"This reform is about more than moving cases through the court system more efficiently," said Adriene Holder, chief attorney of civil practice at The Legal Aid Society. "It is about helping families regain something that is incredibly difficult to replace, and that’s stability."
