NYC broker fee bill becomes law without Adams’s signature
- Mayor Adams declined to sign or veto the legislation within a 30-day window
- The FARE Act takes effect in June; it could still face opposition from REBNY
Chi Ossé at the rally at the steps of City Hall before the Nov. 13th vote on the broker fee bill.
Celia Young/Brick Underground
A new law shifting the burden of paying a broker fee to landlords became law on Friday and will take effect in mid-June—even without Mayor Eric Adams’ sign off.
Adams declined to sign the Fairness in Apartment Rental Expenses (FARE) Act within a 30-day window after approval by the City Council, enabling the bill to become a law.
[UPDATE: The Real Estate Board of New York filed a lawsuit to block the FARE Act in Manhattan federal court.]
“After too many decades under an unfair and suffocating system, New Yorkers can be free from the forced broker fee once this new law takes effect in June 2025,” Council member Chi Ossé, who introduced the law, said in a statement on Friday. “The era of the captive tenant may finally be over.”
The law requires that a landlord who hires a broker to market a unit to pay their fee or face civil penalties of up to $2,000 from the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection. That agency is also charged with reaching out to the public to inform New Yorkers about the new law.
In the past, NYC renters have paid broker fees of 10 to 15 percent of the annual rent, even if they didn’t hire the broker themselves. High fees for rent-stabilized units—some of the city’s most affordable apartments—particularly frustrated renters.
The FARE Act scored significant support from the 51-person City Council and passed with a veto-proof majority of 42 members in favor on Nov. 13th. At a rally before the vote, Ossé said he believes the bill “will give tenants bargaining power.”
Ossé faced a tough battle to get the FARE Act passed. He first introduced it in 2023, but it failed to come to a vote after significant opposition from the Real Estate Board of New York, the broker and landlord trade association. Ossé reintroduced the FARE Act in 2024 and launched a social media campaign to promote it, gaining support from celebrities such as comedian Ilana Glazer.
Brokers criticized the bill at an explosive hearing in June, arguing that it would increase rents because landlords would include the cost of a fee in a tenant’s rent. But a new report from StreetEasy found that the FARE Act is unlikely to result in significantly higher rents.
StreetEasy’s report found that properties that stopped charging tenants a broker fee from January 2012 to October 2024 “did not increase asking rents beyond broader market trends.”
Not over until it’s over
As written, the FARE Act will take effect 180 days after it became a law on Dec. 14th, which would put the effective date in mid-June. But the fight to curb broker fees may not be over.
REBNY may sue to block the law’s implementation. REBNY President James Whelan vowed to “pursue all options to fight” the legislation when it passed in November.
On Monday, REBNY’s website announced that the board will “continue to push back against this destructive legislation,” and encouraged members to contact their city council members to express their opposition to the law. A representative for REBNY did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.
Ossé also raised the concern that Mayor Adams wouldn’t enforce the law, noting that he had previously said the bill could have unintended consequences: namely, that it would encourage landlords to raise rents. But it’s worth noting that the bill’s implementation falls under the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, not the mayor’s office itself.
