Cambridge City Council Takes First Step Toward Eliminating Broker Fees

The Cambridge City Council took the first step in forcing landlords rather than tenants to pay broker fees, unanimously voting at a Monday meeting to hold a future hearing to discuss its feasibility.

The policy order — which directs the city’s Neighborhood and Long-Term Planning Committee to hold a meeting to explore the ability to prohibit the practice of landlords requiring tenants to pay broker fees — comes amid Cambridge’s housing affordability crisis.

In results from an annual survey of residents released last week, respondents indicated that housing affordability was both their top priority and the area where the city underperforms the most.

This initial push comes close behind the New York City Council, which recently approved a law to shift broker fees to landlords in the majority of cases.

Numerous residents spoke in support of forcing landlords to pay the fees at the meeting, citing the benefits of lowered upfront moving costs.

“With New York having recently done this, Boston — the Greater Boston market — is really the only one in the country that still has tenants paying broker fees,” David Halperin said.

Halperin described broker fees as a way for landlords and brokers “to be able to extract money from tenants who don’t have any power.”

Nicholas Water, a member of the Greater Boston tenants’ union, said he has moved four times in five years due to “terrible landlords,” adding that he has paid broker fees each time.

“Here we are living and working in one of the most expensive areas in the United States. We have no eviction protections. There is no rent control,” he said. “This is a precarious life for tenants.”

Several councilors also expressed preliminary support for the proposal.

Councilor Jivan G. Sobrinho-Wheeler said the fees are “prohibitively expensive,” which can force tenants to stay in problematic housing.

“With the broker’s fee, a renter can have to pay easily more than $10,000 just to move into their apartment,” he said.

Sobrinho-Wheeler added that “it keeps folks stuck in their current housing even when there are issues with it, even when they have challenges with roommates, even when they have challenges with the housing itself, even if they have an abusive partner.”

“That prohibitively expensive cost — $10,000 more to move — keeps people stuck,” he added.

Councilor Ayesha M. Wilson spoke to her personal experience with broker fees.

“I’ve had to pay broker fees,” Wilson said. “It’s something that you don’t get back.”

“I think the burden shouldn’t be on the tenants trying to move in,” she added.

But Wilson added that it was important for the Council to have a “nuanced conversation” about all the effects of such a policy shift.

“It is important for us to have a true, honest conversation about the burden of broker fees and what this may mean for not only the tenants, but even for the landlords,” she continued.

Councilor Paul F. Toner also emphasized the importance of carefully assessing the problem from the viewpoint of landlords, in addition to tenants.

“I hope as part of this conversation, of this hearing, that we’ll actually have brokers and apartment building owners as part of the conversation,” he said.

“I’ve certainly heard on the media a number of times about, ‘Oh, this can cost somebody $12,000 just to get into an apartment,’ which certainly seems wrong,” Toner said. “But I just would love to get a sense of how much that’s really happening in Cambridge.”

—Staff writer Benjamin Isaac can be reached at benjamin.isaac@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @benjaminisaac_1.