It’s a familiar and agonizing experience for legions of New York City renters: before moving into a new apartment, a tenant must first shell out thousands of dollars in fees to a real estate broker, even if that person was hired by the landlord.
“In most businesses, the person who hires the person pays the person,” said Agustina Velez, a house cleaner from Queens who said she recently paid $6,000 to switch apartments. “Enough with these injustices. Landlords have to pay for the services they use.”Ahead of the hearing, hundreds of brokers gathered to voice their objections at a rally organized by the Real Estate Board of New York, the industry’s powerful lobbying group.
The bill’s sponsor, City Councilman Chi Ossé, has said he was moved to act following a recent apartment search that was “tiring, treacherous, and competitive.” Another local official, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, testified that he’d once paid a $2,500 fee to a broker he never met.Their frustration was echoed at Wednesday’s hearing by dozens of ordinary renters, along with a mix of labor unions, housing policy groups and some prominent business leaders.
Under the legislation, tenants would still pay brokers that they hired directly. The bill’s brief language — less than 200 words — only requires the party that hires the real estate agent pay their fee. Brokers are adamant that their jobs are far more intensive than merely opening the door to tenants. Many said they help put together listings, review applications, answer questions posed by tenants and arrange tours at all hours of the day. But some also acknowledged that the current system favors landlords.