Landlord Problem
My girlfriend and I have been renting a 2BR in Prospect Heights for the past 18 months at 1,800/mo. When we moved in we paid first month’s, last month’s, security (1,800) and a brokers fee (1,800) to the super/landlord, (even though our friend who lived in the building found us the place.) Now I have…
My girlfriend and I have been renting a 2BR in Prospect Heights for the past 18 months at 1,800/mo. When we moved in we paid first month’s, last month’s, security (1,800) and a brokers fee (1,800) to the super/landlord, (even though our friend who lived in the building found us the place.)
Now I have to move for a job in another city but my girlfriend is staying and searching for a roommate. Our super/landlord tells us he will have to collect an $800 broker’s fee (half the rent) from the new tenant upon their moving in.
We asked for him to put this in writing and he refused. There is nothing in our lease about adding new names to the lease or the fees they have to pay in order to move in.
The real estate company to whom we send our rent checks each month, and who owns the building, is not at all involved in the day-to-day operations here.
Is our super/landlord’s request for a fresh broker’s fee totally bogus? Any ideas or tips on how we can fight it?
Thanks much!
as a landlord i say move out you don’t need to help jerks like that make money, there is plenty of places in brooklyn and ph.
Wow, kdabrowski — thanks for the link. That is a great resource to know about.
Show him this thread : )
And find a better apartment for less. I have neighbors in PS with great rentals who had a lot of trouble renting and ended up dropping their price several times just to get them occupied. These are not the times to have horrible LLs when you can have great ones in a nicer apartment for less.
In the first place what this person is doing is illegal.
You have to be a licensed real estate salesperson or broker to collect a brokers fee for a transaction involving real property (sale or lease).
The only way this could have been legal is if some sort of Finders Fee agreement was signed.
If you know he is not licensed he needs to refund your fee. Here is the link to the public search: https://appsext7.dos.state.ny.us/nydos/nydosmainMenu.do;jsessionid=EFABNKDIAHKP
PS: My landlord is a real estate broker and did not charge us a fee.
I think the most your super/LL/whoever can charge you is a nominal administrative fee to change the lease. I paid $35 to get a new lease drawn up when one roommate was leaving and a new one was taking over. Anything more than that is extortion!
Stabilized or not, is besides the point. This guy isn’t allowed to collect a commission if he isn’t licensed. Period, AND ITS doubly shady to collect an additional fee on an apt that has already been rented.
If your building has 4 or more units, you have the right to sublease your apartment with the landlord’s consent, but the landlord may not unreasonably withhold his consent. Here, you would be subleasing because you are transferring an interest that is less than your entire interest in the property (you are renting out a room while your gf stays, correct?). I’ve not looked into the issue of what factors make the withholding of consent “reasonable”, but failure to pay a broker’s fee may not be reasonable because such fees are meant to be compensation for the broker’s work in placing the person in the apartment and here your landlord isn’t doing any such work.
See the link below for the text of Sec. 226-b(2) of the NY real property law, as posted on the NY State legislature website at http://public.leginfo.state.ny.us/menugetf.cgi?COMMONQUERY=LAWS.
You might want to write your landlord a letter attaching this provision. Or, you might just want to suck it up to avoid conflict with the landlord, and tell the new roommate that she has to pay the fee. Good luck.
This is the key line: “We asked for him to put this in writing and he refused.”
What is and isn’t legal depends on whether or not you’re rent stabilized, but anything that isn’t in writing is bs.
So you should put it in writing to the people you pay your rent to. Make sure they know about the first round of key money too. It is definitely *not* legal.
sounds like extortion to me. If your bldg is rent-stabilized (6+ units) it’s totally illegal. I was a super for 7 years and a LL for the past 5 and I’ve never heard of any such “fee”. If he can’t produce something in writing tell him to take a hike. And definitely get the management company involved. You should fight this. I highly doubt he has any legal recourse either, without proof of it in writing and signed by you which, judging from your post, is not an issue.