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The Cambridge City Council voted unanimously to file a home rule petition requesting state approval to eliminate tenant-paid broker fees in a meeting last week.
The vote arrived as a statewide effort to eliminate the fees is gaining steam.
Massachusetts landlords commonly charge tenants an upfront fee to cover the cost of hiring a broker to act as a middleman during the leasing process. But a bill is working its way through the state senate that would shift the broker fees to landlords, garnering support from Governor Maura T. Healey ’92.
Over the past six months, both Boston and Somerville submitted similar home rule petitions to express the cities’ support for the elimination of broker fees. As Cambridge follows suit, advocates are optimistic about the bill’s future.
“You have Boston, Cambridge, and Somerville, which is the vast majority of the rental market in the state.when you put them together, pushing for this,” Dave Halperin, an advocate for ending broker fees, said. “I don’t really hear a lot of pushback.”
The Council previously voted unanimously to discuss the feasibility of shifting broker fees to landlords in the city. But Monday’s vote represents a more unified push to reimagine the current broker fee system across the state.
Halperin said that broker fees often raise the barrier to entry for renters who are trying to move.
“Broker’s fee, plus first and last month, plus security deposit — then you’re talking about like four times a very high rent, which can be very prohibitive for a lot of people,” Halperin said.
Joseph Kobialka, a local real estate agent, said that landlords are likely to find a way to pass this cost off to tenants.
“Most landlords that I’ve spoken to said they would incorporate the fee in what their monthly rent would increase to,” Kobialka said. “That simple.”
“You call whatever you want, but that’s what the landlords tell me that they will be ultimately going to be doing if this, in fact, goes into effect in Massachusetts,” he added.
This raise in rent would also likely persist well after the sum of the broker fee has been paid, according to Kobialka.
“I’ve never seen a landlord lower rent,” he said.
But even if landlords raise rent to accommodate for the fees, advocates say that individuals who receive housing vouchers will not feel the effects.
“If you have someone, for instance, with a Section 8 voucher, then the voucher holder will contribute a third of their income, and the voucher will cover the gap for the monthly rent,” Halperin said, noting that broker fees are covered if the landlord includes the fees in the rent.
Halperin said that even if landlords increase prices in the city, low-income individuals would benefit from the fees being “spread out” rather than required upfront, even if they are seeking a market rate unit they are paying for independently.
Justin N. Saif ’99, co-chair of A Better Cambridge, said the home rule petition is a step in the right direction for the city. As federal funding for voucher programs remains uncertain, Saif said Cambridge must prioritize local actions to improve the affordability of living in the city.
“Anything that could be done at the local level, we should be trying to do,” Saif said.
“The more we can have different cities asking for things together, that shows more support and puts more pressure on the legislature to act,” Halperin said.
—Staff writer Summer E. Rose can be reached at summer.rose@thecrimson.com.
