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No “fare.”
Hundreds of complaints about New York City’s new broker fee ban have been filed since the law went into effect over the summer — but only two real estate agents have been forced to reimburse tenants who were wrongly charged, The Post has learned.
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.
He claimed the tenants had agreed to hire him as a broker for the apartment, on Dean Street in Crown Heights — and griped that he must now shell out a $750 civil penalty in addition to the returned fee.
“[The tenant] was out of town and was looking for an apartment – and agreed to hire me,” Mendlewicz fumed to The Post.
The first-of-its-kind judgement followed an administrative hearing, according to the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection.
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 – with the broker, who was not identified, now forced to pay $1,500 in penalties.
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.
The law, which was passed by the City Council in 2024, states that the party who hires the broker must pay the fee – including landlords who employ brokers to publish apartment listings.
The FARE Act prohibits charging tenants 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.
Mendlewicz railed that the new regulations have stiffed him out of business and force those in the real estate industry to work “much harder” to “explain [to] clients the value of hiring a broker … [who] need to work 6-8 weeks to find a tenant that can afford these units.”
“Then we still risk the landlord finding a tenant on their own [or a] tenant making a complaint, as you see in this case,” he said.
He and the other broker to get dinged and ordered to cough up refunds were notified between December 2025 and this January, DCWP said.
The city has settled six other FARE Act-related complaints prior to reaching a hearing, a DCWP rep said – but tenants in those cases have yet to see their refund.
“We have a dedicated team who are actively investigating these complaints and also assessing which are actionable to bring administrative charges,” the agency said.
Brooklyn Councilman Chi Ossé, the bill’s sponsor, told constituents in a January X post: “If you were forced to pay a broker fee and you reported it, your refunds are coming.”
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.
Queens was next with 46 complaints, followed by Manhattan, at 41, with The Bronx notching 28 and Staten Island just four.
Mendlewicz, the disgruntled broker, claimed he has witnessed New Yorkers opting to forgo moving out of their current apartments due to spiking rents — with landlords hiding the broker fee inside monthly bills.
“They can’t afford to move out,” he said, “which adds to the shortage of the supply.”
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.
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