{"id":653945,"date":"2026-03-14T01:19:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T01:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/653945\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T01:19:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T01:19:13","slug":"nyc-fields-hundreds-of-complaints-over-new-broker-fee-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/653945\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC fields hundreds of complaints over new broker fee ban"},"content":{"rendered":"

No \u201cfare.\u201d <\/p>\n

Hundreds of complaints about New York City\u2019s new broker fee ban<\/a> have been filed since the law went into effect over the summer \u2014 but only two real estate agents have been forced to reimburse tenants who were wrongly charged, The Post has learned.<\/p>\n

Israel Mendlewicz, of real estate brokerage Urban Pads, was ordered to return a $4,480 broker fee he charged tenants for a rent-stabilized Brooklyn apartment in June, the month the Fairness in Apartment Rental Expenses (FARE) Act went into effect.<\/p>\n

Tenants at a rent stabilized Brooklyn apartment building scored the city\u2019s first broker fee refund through an administrative hearing. Google Maps<\/p>\n

He claimed the tenants had agreed to hire him as a broker for the apartment, on Dean Street in Crown Heights \u2014 and griped that he must now shell out a $750 civil penalty in addition to the returned fee.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The tenant] was out of town and was looking for an apartment \u2013 and agreed to hire me,\u201d Mendlewicz fumed to The Post.<\/p>\n

The first-of-its-kind judgement followed an administrative hearing, according to the city\u2019s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection.<\/p>\n

The other group of refunded tenants saw their $2,500 broker fee returned by their agent before an administrative hearing could come to fruition, DCWP said \u2013 with the broker, who was not identified, now forced to pay $1,500 in penalties.<\/p>\n

The agency has received more than 1,600 gripes and questions about the FARE Act, resulting in 53 summonses, since the law took effect, a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

The law, which was passed by the City Council in 2024, states that the party who hires the broker must pay the fee \u2013 including landlords who employ brokers to publish apartment listings.<\/p>\n

The new law, which was passed by the NYC Council in 2024, states that the party who hires the broker must pay the fee. Paul Martinka<\/p>\n

The FARE Act prohibits charging tenants<\/a> for the fees of a broker retained by the landlord. Fines start at $750 for first-time violations and increase up to a max of $2,000.<\/p>\n

Mendlewicz railed that the new regulations have stiffed him out of business and force those in the real estate industry to work \u201cmuch harder\u201d to \u201cexplain [to] clients the value of hiring a broker \u2026 [who] need to work 6-8 weeks to find a tenant that can afford these units.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThen we still risk the landlord finding a tenant on their own [or a] tenant making a complaint, as you see in this case,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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He and the other broker to get dinged and ordered to cough up refunds were notified between December 2025 and this January, DCWP said.<\/p>\n

The city has settled six other FARE Act-related complaints prior to reaching a hearing, a DCWP rep said \u2013 but tenants in those cases have yet to see their refund.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a dedicated team who are actively investigating these complaints and also assessing which are actionable to bring administrative charges,\u201d the agency said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you were forced to pay a broker fee and you reported it, your refunds are coming,\u201d City councilman and bill sponsor Chi Oss\u00e9 (D-Brooklyn) told constituents in a January X post. J.C. Rice<\/p>\n

Brooklyn Councilman Chi Oss\u00e9, the bill\u2019s sponsor, told constituents in a January X post: \u201cIf you were forced to pay a broker fee and you reported it, your refunds are coming.\u201d <\/p>\n

There have been 186 broker fee charge-related complaints made to 311 since June 2025, according to city records, with the most calls, 67, made in Brooklyn. <\/p>\n

Queens was next with 46 complaints, followed by Manhattan, at 41, with The Bronx notching 28 and Staten Island just four. <\/p>\n

Mendlewicz, the disgruntled broker, claimed he has witnessed New Yorkers opting to forgo moving out of their current apartments due to spiking rents \u2014 with landlords hiding the broker fee inside monthly bills.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey can\u2019t afford to move out,\u201d he said, \u201cwhich adds to the shortage of the supply.\u201d<\/p>\n

A StreetEasy report released in December found the FARE Act is estimated to have increased rents by 1.1%, with the ongoing citywide housing shortage appearing to be the culprit behind rent increases<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No \u201cfare.\u201d Hundreds of complaints about New York City\u2019s new broker fee ban have been filed since the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":653946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,1121,15848,5310,6335,5248,405,403,7619,5226,5225,5228,5227,8167,10204,24667,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969],"class_list":["post-653945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-brooklyn","tag-chi-osse","tag-city-council","tag-exclusive","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-life","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-rent","tag-residential-real-estate","tag-tenants","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-us-news","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116224902277673137","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}