What's happening
This bill limits landlord application fees for residential rentals to $30 and establishes fines for violations.
Why it matters
Caps total upfront application/credit check costs for renters at $30, preventing landlords from charging excessive or multiple screening fees for residential leases.
Ensures transparency by limiting fees only to the actual third-party costs incurred by landlords, which can help prevent hidden or arbitrary charges in the rental process.
Establishes a formal complaint process and escalating fines for landlords who violate the cap, giving renters a concrete avenue for recourse and deterring repeated abuse.
Excludes cooperative housing corporations from the fee cap, so potential tenant-shareholders in co-ops would not be covered, which could matter for those considering different types of housing.
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Who cares
Prospective residential tenants
Application fees would be limited to landlords’ actual third-party costs for credit checks or related services, with a $30 total cap and a right to file complaints over violations.
Residential landlords and their agents
They would face limits on application fees, with landlords subject to $100 fines for a first or second violation and $250 for each subsequent violation.
Division of Housing and Community Renewal
Its commissioner would receive tenant complaints, determine violations and impose fines.
Prospective cooperative tenant-shareholders
They would be excluded from the bill’s application-fee protections.
Headline styles
Limit Rental Application Fees
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
1 Co-sponsor
History
- Ordered to third reading cal.410
- Ordered to third reading rules cal.59
- Rules report cal.59
- Reported
- Reported referred to rules
- Reported referred to codes
- Referred to housing
Full text
1 pageUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
5786
2017-2018 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
February 15, 2017
Introduced by M. of A. CYMBROWITZ -- read once and referred to the Committee on Housing
AN ACT to amend the real property law, in relation to fees landlords may charge tenants
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. The real property law is amended by adding a new section 220-a to read as follows:
§ 220-a. Application fees. 1. Wherever used in this section:
a. "application fee" means any application processing fee or credit check charge or similar charge that a potential tenant must pay or is in any way requested to pay to a landlord in order to be considered for rental or lease of any real property or portion thereof used for residential purposes.
b. "potential tenant" means any person with an intention to lease or rent any real property or portion thereof for residential purposes, excluding potential tenant shareholders of cooperative housing corporations.
2. If a landlord or his or her agent charges a potential tenant an application fee, such application fee may not exceed the actual cost of a credit check or other related services paid for by a landlord to a third party, provided, however, that the total of such fee or fees shall not exceed thirty dollars.
3. Where a landlord charges application fees in violation of this section, a potential tenant may file a complaint with the commissioner of the division of housing and community renewal. Upon a finding by the commissioner that a landlord has violated the provisions of this section, the commissioner shall impose a fine of one hundred dollars for a first or second violation and a fine of two hundred fifty dollars for a third or any subsequent violation.
§ 2. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall have become a law.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD06605-02-7
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.