Can Nyc Landlords Make You Pay a Broker Fee? Swimming anymore. – ryan

Photo: Emil Cohen/NYC COUNCIL Media Unit

Some Good News, for Once: The Broker Fee as we know it is over in new York City. A City Council bill That Wauld Prevent Your Landlord from Charging You Their Broker is Actually Charging The Following On Wednesday AFTER AFTER OF OPPOSITION FROM THE REAL-ESTATE industry. The Fare (Fairness in Apartments Rentals) Act, which was first introtted by chi ossé in 2023, states that a landlord has to pay the fee for a broker who lists and that brokers and landlords have to disclose any other fees to tenants up. It Sounds Simple, but it was actually extremely hard to get. “We put a lot of effhority into this campaign,” Ossé Said on Tuesday. “The fact that it is done by the vote tomorrow is a really good sign.” On wednesday, a veto-proof majority of 42 City Council Members Voted in favor of it.

New York is one of the Few Cities in the Country Where Tenants Regularly Have to Pay Brokers Who Are Hired by Their Landlords to Show the Properties they ‘ What this has encountered in practice is that brokers have been gouging tenants with that can can reach as high as 15 percent or more of their annual rent. That’s the Generally Thousands of Dollars In Fees for a Broker Who Your Landlord Hirhed and Who Also Maybe Didn’t Tive Show Up. (In my current apartment, i had to pay a month’s rent to a broker who texted with them buzzeryone in the building unil someone let me in so i could myself the apartment.)

A First Attempt to Kill the Compulsor Broker Fee Happened in 2020, after the State Legislature Passed A Slate of Tenant Protections and the New York Department of State Issured A Surprise Guidance That Banned the City’s Wacky Fee System. For a few sweet Weeks that year, charging tenants for what was actually the landlord’s expenses was illegal. But The Real Estate Board of New York Sted, saying The Department of State Had “IlleGally oversteped its Role,” and a Judge Eventually Aggreed and overturned The ban.

THEN IN JUNE 2023, OSSé Introduced the Fare Act. It didn’t go anywhere. Accounting to Report from the New York Daily NewsRebny Struck a private deal Withn-Councilwoman Marjorie velázquez, who was chair of the consumer and workrier protection commutee and blocked the Bill Coming up for a Hearing. Ossé reintroduced it again at the beginning of 2024, Garnering Backing from Labor Unions and Reaching out to Different Social-Media Influencers to Drum Up Support. “It Created a lot of Natural Public Buzz Around the Bill that made it hard for the City Council to Ignore,” Ossé Said. (Plus velázquez Lost Her reelection bid.)

As the momentum built around the Bill, the real-aestate industry went nuts. Brokers Opping the Bill Took Over City Hall Park a before a Hearing this Summer, Wearing Corcoran-Branded Pullovers and Holding Signs Said Things Like “Agents are Tenants Too.” (“It ‘istty insulting,” one douglas elliman broker told with at the rally. “We don’t just open doors.”) Rebny clalimed that landlords would the fee into higher rent SEEED TO BUY. But this Kind of Thing can’t open in the case of nearly 1 million rent-stabilized apartments, SINCE LANDLORDS CAN’T Rent Above a Certain Threshold. Rebny tried to shop Its Own Version of Bill in October, Which Wauld Require Agents to Give Apartments Hunters “A Tenant Bill of Rights,” Which Wauld Inform, Among Other Things, That Broker Fees Were Negotene All Parties. ” (Surat!)

swimming all Brokers, Though, Were Against The Idea. “The Act Does Not Cap Agent Commissions,” Anna Klenkar, A Broker at Sotheby’s Testified at the Hearing. “IF OUR INCOMES DROP CECAUSE LANDLORDS PAY USE THAN THAN THEY EXPECTED TENANANTS TO PAY, IT SHOWS SHOWS SYSTEM IS BUILT ON EXPLOITATION.”

Nor for any potential legal challenges this time around? “There’s Always The Opportunity for Anyone to Sue anything, especilantly rebny,” Ossé Says. “But i’m Feeling Good About This Bill.” Let’s Hope’s Right.