


Big Apple residents would no longer be forced to spend small fortunes on broker fees just to rent an apartment under new legislation being considered by the City Council.
The bill, introduced Thursday by Brooklyn Councilman Chi Ossé, a Democratic socialist, doesn’t eliminate broker fees but rather shifts the responsibility of payment to whichever party hires the broker, whether it’s the tenant or landlord.
Currently, tenants in most cases end up paying broker fees – which typically run at least the same as a month’s rent — when moving into a new rental, even if the landlord hired the broker.
This makes renting an apartment an expensive nightmare for many New Yorkers because landlords usually want the first month’s rent and another one or two months as a safety deposit up front — on top of the broker fees.
One broker last year pocketed a whopping $20,000 fee after renting off a cheap Upper West Side one-bedroom pad that was rent stabilized for a mere $1,725 a month.
Ossé called the bill “common sense,” adding New York City is “unique among major cities in America in having tenants often paying the fee for a broker’s services.”
The legislation isn’t without early opposition, including the Real Estate Board of New York and the landlord advocacy group Rent Stabilization Association.
REBNY in a statement said it believes the “legislation will negatively impact agent commissions while also leading to higher rents for many apartment seekers. As we have done in the past, REBNY is focused on elevating the voices of thousands of agents to oppose this deeply problematic bill.”