When Tamara, a 23-year-old researcher, was looking for a new apartment in the latter half of June for a July 1 move-in date, she knew she had the FARE Act, which took effect on June 11, on her side.
The new law meant brokers could no longer try to force her to pay a fee if she didn't hire them. "I had a good amount of brokers try to slip past me with the broker fee, but I simply would just remind them of the new act and make it known that I would be reporting them… and they would usually almost immediately back down," she said. In one example, a broker unashamedly sent her a list of payments required to apply for an apartment that included a $3,500 broker fee, she said. She confronted the broker, and he removed it.
However, as it got closer to July and Tamara still didn't have a new lease locked in, she said she ended up sending a company an illegal fee, "simply out of desperation" to secure an apartment in time.
Her application, however, ended up falling through. She tried to get the fee returned, but the agent had stopped returning her calls. That's when she phoned the agency's office and told them she'd reported the agency to the City for breaching the FARE Act, and threatened to take them to court.
"They finally called me back, only to try and tell me that they would only give my money back if I canceled the report, which I told them was extremely illegal and that I would be at the office in person anyways to receive my money," she said, adding, "I did get it back, so yay!"
In the end, Tamara found an apartment with no broker fee just in time. "It was rough and we definitely could've done better," she said, "but I'm just happy to have a place to live amidst the chaos of such a competitive and big city."
Tamara is far from the only New Yorker who has encountered a housing market rife with confusion and trickery since the FARE Act came into effect almost a month ago.