Rental Broker Fee Law in NYC – Ultimate Guide
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The broker fee law in New York City is the FARE Act, Local Law 119 of 2024. Since June 11, 2025, a landlord’s broker can’t charge a tenant a fee for renting an apartment. The fee falls on whoever hired the broker. Breaking the rule costs up to $1,000 for a first violation and up to $2,000 thereafter.
We run a rental desk, and we’ve filed FARE Act complaints on behalf of tenants who were charged anyway. So this is the law as it reads and as it’s actually being enforced, not just the press-release version.
The short answer: if you answered a listing, you owe the landlord’s broker nothing.
| Situation | Legal to charge you a fee? |
|---|---|
| You replied to a listing, and a broker showed you the unit | No. The broker works for the landlord. |
| You signed an agreement to hire your own tenant’s broker | Yes, at the rate you agreed in writing first |
| The listing says “broker fee” and names no exception | No, and the listing itself may break the disclosure rules |
| Background or credit check | Yes, capped at $20 by separate state law |
| Your lease and the fee both predate June 11, 2025 | Possibly, depending on the contract |
Is it legal to charge a broker fee in NYC?
No, not when the broker was hired by the landlord. The FARE Act makes it a rule, with a $2,000 fine for a second offense. Section 20-699.21(a) says a landlord’s agent “shall not impose any fee on, or collect any fee from, a tenant related to the rental of residential real property.”
That covers the classic case. You find a listing, a broker meets you at the door, and at signing, they ask for a month’s rent or more. The broker chose to work on that listing for the owner. Under the law, the owner pays them, not you.
The one legal way you pay a broker fee now is to hire your own agent. More on that below. If you are weighing renting against buying, what NestApple offers buyers is the sale-side version of paying less.
What the FARE Act actually says
The FARE Act added sections 20-699.20 through 20-699.25 to the city’s Administrative Code. In plain terms, the city wrote down what was always obviously true. Section 20-699.21(e) creates “a rebuttable presumption that an agent who publishes a listing for a rental of residential real property does so with the permission or authorization of the landlord.”
That presumption is the whole machine. A broker can’t say “the landlord never hired me” about a unit they advertised. To charge you, they’d have to rebut it.
The law also rewrote disclosure. Section 20-699.22 states that any tenant-paid fee must appear in the listing “in a clear and conspicuous manner.” Before you sign a lease, the landlord or agent gives you an itemized written list of all fees; you sign that list first, and the landlord keeps it for 3 years.
Who pays the broker fee under the FARE Act?
Whoever hired the broker. If that’s the landlord, the landlord pays. If you want your own representation, you can hire a broker the way you hire a plumber, agree on a fee up front, and pay it.
The DCWP’s own FAQ draws one line here. A tenant’s broker can advertise, be hired, and be paid by you. What they can’t do is “condition the availability of specific units or identifiable inventory on the broker being hired by a tenant.” They can’t dangle an apartment and make hiring them the price of seeing it.
Two other fees survive. Background and credit checks are still allowed, but state law caps the total at $20. And a fee you signed up for before June 11, 2025, may still apply, depending on the contract.
The penalties and how enforcement has gone
Charging an illegal fee carries a civil penalty of up to $1,000 for a first violation. Each subsequent violation within two years carries a penalty of up to $2,000. A disclosure violation runs up to $500, then $1,000.
The DCWP can also make the broker refund what you paid. And section 20-699.24 lets you sue directly, with a court free to order “compensatory, injunctive and declaratory relief.”
Enforcement has been slower than tenants hoped. As of June 1, 2026, the DCWP had taken 2,033 complaints and issued 74 summonses. It had recovered $15,500 in restitution for 20 tenants and $27,125 in penalties from 33 brokers. A screenshot is worth more to the city than your outrage: officials said many complaints arrived without the evidence needed to write a summons.
The industry fought the law and lost. A federal judge refused to block it. In July 2026, the Second Circuit affirmed the dismissal of REBNY’s First Amendment and preemption claims.
What the average NYC broker fee used to be
Before the FARE Act, an NYC rental broker fee typically ranged from one month’s rent to 15% of the first year’s rent. One month is about 8.33% of the annual rent. StreetEasy and CityRealty both put the common range at 12% to 15%, though that’s a rule of thumb, not a measured number.
New York was one of two American cities where this was ever normal, and nobody’s proud of the other one. Boston is the usual comparison. A 2020 state attempt to end tenant-paid fees was reversed in court by 2021. That’s why the FARE Act had to be a city law with its own teeth.
If your goal is simply to pay nothing, the fee amount matters less than the search. Our guide to no-fee apartments in NYC covers where the genuinely fee-free inventory is. And if you’re weighing renting against buying, what NestApple offers buyers is the other side of the same equation.
How to report a broker fee you were charged
File with the city. Call 311 or use the complaint form at nyc.gov/consumers.
The form wants receipts, not feelings. Include dated screenshots of the listing, the listing URL, and the site it was on. Add every text or email with the agent, plus both parties’ contact details.
If the DCWP sustains the complaint, the broker can be penalized and ordered to refund your fee. You can also bring your own lawsuit under section 20-699.24 instead. That can affect a parallel DCWP restitution claim, so it’s worth a short call with an attorney first. This page is part of our guide to NYC commissions and rebates, which also covers the sales side.
What we see on the ground
On our rental desk, the fee didn’t vanish so much as change its name badge. We still see listings quote a “broker fee,” then a broker at the showing calls it a fee you owe for their “help,” even though you found the unit and they represent the owner.
The move that works is boring. Ask, in writing, who the broker represents and who’s paying their fee before you see the apartment. If the answer is “you” and you didn’t hire them, that’s the moment to walk away or say you’ll only proceed on a fee-free basis. And save every message.
If you end up buying instead of renting, our closing-cost calculators let you price a purchase with a rebate in it. Our ways to save money when buying a house cover the rest of the buyer’s levers.
Common questions
Is the FARE Act still in effect in 2026? Yes. It took effect on June 11, 2025. A federal judge refused to pause it, and the Second Circuit affirmed the dismissal of the industry’s challenge in July 2026.
Can a broker charge me a fee if I hire them myself? Yes. If you sign an agreement to hire your own tenant’s broker and agree on a fee first, that fee is legal. The ban applies to the landlord’s broker charging a tenant who didn’t hire them.
What if my listing still says “broker fee”? The listing itself may violate the disclosure rules. Ask the agent in writing who hired the broker. If it was the landlord, you don’t owe the fee, and you can file a complaint with the DCWP.
How much can a broker be fined? Up to $1,000 for a first violation for charging an illegal fee. Each subsequent violation within two years can result in a fine of up to $2,000, plus a possible order to refund what you paid.
Nicole Fishman Benoliel co-founded NestApple in 2017. She's a lawyer admitted to the New York bar - her law degree is from La Escuela Libre de Derecho in Costa Rica, with further study at IE Business School in Madrid and an LLM from Fordham in New York. She does not act in a legal capacity at NestApple; every client is referred to an attorney who handles real estate deals full time.
