This week, we’re joined by Councilmember Chi Ossé of the 36th District (Bed-Stuy & North Crown Heights) to discuss the FARE Act, a newly passed law he sponsored. Set to take effect in June, the law—currently facing a court challenge—will regulate broker fees in NYC.
Yaacov: Could you tell us more about the bill, what motivated you to sponsor it, and what’s included in the bill?
Councilmember Ossé: Absolutely. The bill is called the FARE Act, which stands for Fairness in Apartment Rental Expenses. Two years ago, while searching for an apartment, I was looking for housing within a small area—Bed-Stuy and Northern Crown Heights—since I had to live in my district. I visited different listings, sometimes with a broker present and sometimes without.
When a broker was present, they often paid me little attention. Yet, when I was interested in an apartment, I discovered I had to pay not only the first month’s rent and security deposit but also a broker’s fee to move in. These fees can range from 15% to 30% of the annual rent, creating a major financial hurdle.
I saw this as an obstacle not only for myself—even though I had the means to secure housing in my district—but for many New Yorkers struggling during the housing crisis. As a city council member, I wanted to push for a solution—not to ban broker fees outright, as I eventually hired a broker who did an excellent job—but to ensure that no one is forced to pay a broker fee unfairly.
Yaacov: Tell us more about the bill and how it addresses the issue.
Councilmember Ossé: This bill would require that whoever hires a broker—whether the landlord or tenant—pays the broker fee. Nine times out of ten, when searching for an apartment, tenants find listings through StreetEasy, word of mouth, or other means. Yet, they often end up paying a broker’s fee for a broker hired by the landlord. This bill shifts that responsibility, aligning the process with standard practices in other industries: if you hire a service, you pay for it.
Yaacov: Currently, a broker approaches a landlord and offers to list their apartments, often bringing a photographer, taking photos, and posting the listing on platforms like StreetEasy. A tenant then finds the apartment, contacts the broker, views the unit, and ultimately pays the broker’s fee.
I understand that you want to change this so that because the landlord hires the broker, the landlord should be responsible for paying the fee. Are there other states where this practice is already regulated? Do similar laws exist elsewhere?
Councilmember Ossé: What’s really interesting about this bill—and what made our push to pass it so unique—is that its goal was simply to align New York City’s broker fee system with how the industry already operates in every major U.S. city. There weren’t even existing laws on this issue because it was just the standard practice. In cities like Chicago and Los Angeles, whoever hires the broker pays the broker fee.
The only two places in the country where this backward system existed were Boston and New York City. Now that we’ve passed the law in New York, the governor of Massachusetts has announced plans to introduce similar legislation—not just for Boston, but for the entire state—after seeing the impact of New York’s reform in ensuring fairness in broker fees
Yaacov: But to be clear, in other cities across America, is this policy a result of the real estate market or the law?
Councilmember Ossé: It makes sense in terms of how we do business. For example, if you buy a granola bar at the grocery store, you can’t place the cost on someone else, right? That same logic is applied to the broker fee system in these other cities.
Some might argue that the market is different in New York City, and it’s true—New York is unique, with its high density and housing shortage. However, when you look at other housing-dense cities like Chicago and San Francisco, which may not be as large as New York but still have significant housing markets, they also follow the system where the person who hires the broker pays the fee.
Yaacov: So, you had this experience where you saw tenants being wrongly charged for broker fees, and you decided, “I have to fix this.” What did you do next?
Councilmember Ossé: I approached my legislative director and comms director and said, “We need to get this bill drafted.” We weren’t aiming to ban broker fees, as that had been attempted before. We’re not anti-broker, but we wanted to make the system fairer. So, we drafted a piece of legislation, and introduced it two years ago, and got a sizable amount of co-sponsors—over 26, a majority of the council signed on in the first session.
However, the chair of the committee did not want the bill to pass, and one of the biggest obstacles we faced was the Real Estate Board of New York, which strongly opposed the bill. They didn’t want to see a shift in responsibility for broker fees. We were up against a multimillion-dollar lobby trying to stop this legislation. In the past, any broker fee-related bills in New York City or State had been killed by this lobby.
So, this time we not only drafted and introduced the bill, but we also launched a loud social media campaign to raise public awareness. When the public learned about this initiative, they got involved. Young people who had never participated in democracy before—people who only voted in presidential elections—were calling their council members, attending hearings, and showing up at rallies to support the bill.
I’d describe the campaign as a mix of old school and new school political organizing. I reached out to colleagues for support—nearly every major labor union and various advocacy organizations backed the bill, which is traditional political organizing in New York City. But on top of that, I used short-form media like Instagram and TikTok to reach the public. These videos went viral, and people began asking how they could get involved. Many didn’t even know who their council members were before they picked up the phone to ask for support. I believe that blend of tactics helped get the bill across the finish line.
Yaacov: To summarize, for the bill to be voted on by the full city council, it must first pass through committee. This time, it successfully passed the committee.
Councilmember Ossé: Yes, it was in the Committee on Consumer and Worker Protection. We got a new committee chair after the previous chair lost her re-election seat. The new chair really respected the momentum we built with the campaign, and the speaker’s office also gave a nod of approval, which was incredibly helpful.
Yaacov: I get that a tenant who doesn’t hire a broker shouldn’t be forced to pay the broker’s fee—it makes sense. You didn’t hire the person. What I don’t understand is, in today’s market, what’s supposed to happen now? The bill essentially says that if a broker lists an apartment for a landlord, the broker is now considered the landlord’s broker and can’t charge the tenant.
When a tenant is looking for an apartment and goes to a broker, where is the broker supposed to find apartments if they don’t have any relationships with the landlords? How are they supposed to access those apartments without that connection?
Councilmember Ossé: So there are various outcomes that will come from this. There are still cases in the current system where landlords do pay a broker to get tenants into their homes, and there are still many cases where tenants go out and hire brokers to find them homes.
What this bill will do, however, is address what we’ve seen with the housing situation in New York, especially when it comes to brokers. There are very talented brokers out there, but there are also a lot of unprofessional brokers who don’t have relationships with both tenants and landlords and sometimes view the job as a quick pay scheme. I’m not saying all brokers, but there’s a sizable number.
What I believe this bill will do is help separate the truly professional, skilled brokers who are serious about the business from those who don’t build relationships, don’t show up to listings, or don’t know landlords. Those who have been in the business for a while and take it seriously will continue to get paid by both tenants when they need their services and landlords when they need them too
Yaacov: I watched the hearing and saw Councilmember Powers mention that the original version allowed for a co-payment between the tenant and the landlord.
Councilmember Ossé: There’s still the option for co-payment between tenants and landlords.
Yaacov: But only if the broker doesn’t have the listing. So, the landlord would cover the cost of their broker, while the tenant would have their own broker. Essentially, you’d have both the tenant’s broker and the landlord’s broker coordinating. Could this potentially double the cost?
Councilmember Ossé: Yeah, well, not double—it would be a split cost. We’ll likely see broker fees drop with the passing of this bill.
Yaacov: We are facing a crisis in New York City with the rising costs of building upkeep, taxes, and insurance. I find this is more of a general question, not necessarily about this bill.
Most of your constituency are tenants, right? Most council members represent more tenants than landlords. And landlords are saying, “We can’t afford to maintain these buildings.” We also see that the laws that are being passed tend to be more tenant-friendly. So my question is, if tenants always make up the majority and landlords are the minority, how do you, as an elected official, represent everyone equally? You have to fight for tenants’ rights, but you also need to advocate for landlords’ rights. How do you ensure both sides are represented?
Councilmember Ossé: Yeah, I don’t see this bill as anti-landlord. You know, I see this bill as making a system fair within the United States of America.
Yaacov: No, it’s not anti-landlord, but if you’re a landlord with an apartment building that has eight units and you’re just getting by, this is an added expense. It’s a challenge for landlords who are already struggling with the rising costs of maintenance, taxes, and insurance.
Councilmember Ossé: Or, you can do the work yourself, right? That’s part of being a landlord. You can list these apartments on your own. We all have smartphones, so taking pictures and showing a tenant around is something landlords can do. If being a landlord is a job—and it is—then for those who are pinching pennies or struggling with the cost of being a landlord, doing the work themselves might be a necessary step.
Being a landlord doesn’t just mean collecting rent and handling repairs—it might also involve finding new tenants. And that already happens in the current system. There are landlords who list apartments on their own. The concern is that some landlords don’t want to do this and have been able to essentially get a free service out of brokers.
So, if a landlord is struggling financially and doesn’t want to pay a broker, they have the freedom, ease, and ability to list and show the apartment themselves. Not only are landlords facing tough times in the city, but tenants are as well. We’re all going through a difficult time. I don’t see this bill as favoring one side over the other; I think it’s simply making the process fairer.
Yaacov: The practical implications are that most fees that were paid historically in New York by the tenants are now going to be paid by the landlord.
Councilmember Ossé: The landlords may choose not to hire a broker at all. Additionally, there’s been pushback from some saying landlords might just bake the broker fee into the rent, allowing them to cover the cost. Even in those cases, it’s still more feasible for the tenant to find housing. One of the hardest parts about moving into a new apartment as a tenant is saving up multiple paychecks just to move in. You’ve got the first month’s rent, the security deposit, and the broker’s fee. For me, it was over $10,000 to move into an apartment. Many people in the city don’t have that kind of money on hand when they find a place and need to move in quickly—sometimes within the span of a week or even less. Think about a single mother or a growing family trying to move out of their apartment.
Even if the landlord bakes the broker fee into the rent, the landlord isn’t really paying out of pocket, and the broker still gets paid. But the tenant avoids having to pay multiple upfront fees to move into an apartment.
Yaacov: But do we write laws because tenants are struggling to find apartments and don’t have the money? Do we create laws just to make it easier for them? Is that the primary reason laws are written?
Councilmember Ossé: Absolutely. If people are dealing with financial struggles and housing is a major concern affecting everyone, it’s a stressor that impacts public health in the city. That’s absolutely a priority. And I won’t be modest about this—this was one of the most popular laws passed by this City Council. Hundreds of people showed up to testify, and even more showed up to watch the bill get passed. There were tens of thousands of people who responded positively on social media. You don’t see that kind of engagement every day with City Council legislation. I think that says a lot.
Yaacov: What are you going to do about the price of eggs now? Can you write a law that makes eggs $1.99?
Councilmember Ossé: Wow, I mean, egg prices have been rising since Donald Trump was in office. It’s ridiculous, I know, but that’s the difference between what we can do at the local level versus the state or federal level. Maybe Donald Trump will be our savior in the egg pricing business, but we’ll see.
Yaacov: Hopefully the bill will root out a lot of problems we’ve had in New York City. However, I am concerned about the market. I’m concerned about what happens when we start regulating markets—what’s next? Where does this lead?
Personally, when my mother passed away, I had to find an apartment for a family member. I reached out to the landlord, but there was also a broker involved. When I called the broker, he said he wouldn’t charge me since I found the apartment myself.
So, while I’ve had negative experiences with landlords, I’ve never had one with brokers. But I’m hearing from local brokers that 50% of their business comes from rental broker fees. From their perspective—similar to yours—either landlords will cut brokers or handle it in-house.
So my question is, when you created this bill, did you take into consideration the fact that an average broker makes a starting salary of $50,000?
Councilmember Ossé: Absolutely. There are brokers who think I wrote this bill on my own, but there were so many people we consulted with and collaborated with in writing this bill. There’s a group, and I think you tuned into some of the hearings—brokers testified in support of this bill, right? Many tenant-side brokers helped us write this because they felt like they were being taken advantage of. Sometimes, when there was a partnership between the landlord’s broker and the tenant’s broker in finding a tenant, they felt exploited.
We took into account how much brokers make annually. We wrote this bill with brokers involved.
In government, we’re sometimes put into situations where we have to choose between what’s best for the majority versus what’s best for a smaller group of people. I consider myself a populist in terms of my ideals and values, and I think this is a clear example of what economic populism looks like, especially on the local level.
Yaacov: Was there anything in the opposition that made you reconsider or think, “Maybe I should approach this differently?
Councilmember Ossé: No, not at all. What’s really interesting is that the lobby opposing this kept changing their argument as we pushed the bill further and further. I think our PR strategy was effective at debunking a lot of the claims they made. Every time we addressed one claim, they would come up with a new one. Now, there’s even a lawsuit against the bill, with the argument that it’s violating the First Amendment.
Yaacov: I didn’t find the lawsuit to be too serious.
Councilmember Ossé: Exactly. That’s just another stage in the opposition’s efforts. So, no, I haven’t changed my mind. There are certainly issues I care about where I’ll hear an opposing view and think, “That actually makes sense,” and I might ease up on my stance. But this was not one of those cases.
Yaacov: I watched a lot of the testimony from the groups that supported the bill, and some of those same groups are the ones that oppose all development and affordable housing, which is honestly astonishing.
Councilmember Ossé: Absolutely. I’ve organized around the Rent Guidelines Board hearings before. Rent stabilization is very important to me and to a lot of New Yorkers. I tell people to come to these hearings, but you never see the same faces from those opposing a bill like this—those who say it’s anti-tenant—at the hearings where rents are actually being increased for tenants. That’s a really good point, because I saw that too.
This is a fair law!