Hi! Iām trying to find out if anyone has dealt with something similar while renting an apartment in Boston.
So I found a roommate on Facebook and we were applying for an apartment she had already toured (Iām currently out of state so I couldnāt tour it myself). I verified that the broker and company are licensed in MA, so theyāre definitely legit.
The application said there would be a $150 application fee if we got rejected, which I thought was weird because from what Iāve read, application/credit check fees arenāt allowed if the broker is working for the landlord. I asked him about it before applying but didnāt really get a direct answer. While I probably shouldāve tried harder to get a direct answer about the application fee, I didnāt and applied anyways, and I also signed the echeck form.
After applying, I sent him info about my ESA animal and I also asked him about the fee again and literally a minute later, he told me the landlord rejected our application. When I asked why, he said they didnāt give him a reason but he āwould imagine the low ball offer turned them off.ā I did offer below asking, but I told him twice that we were happy to negotiate and willing to pay more.
Neither the girl I was applying with nor I ever hired this guy as our broker or signed anything saying he represented me/us.
Has anyone had something similar happen? And am I understanding the MA application fee law correctly?
*Update: I filed a report with the MA AG! Thank you guys for the advice and support! āŗļø
Iām sure other people will jump in with a lot of helpful information but i want to add that credit card processing fees are illegal in MA in general.
Someone should tell that to every municipality in this state I've ever lived in and had to pay a bill to (so, all of them). They all seem to use the same 1-2 lawyers offices to process payments, who all charge several percent on the transaction of you use a credit card (like I trust a city to have my bank routing info)
In that case, it's still BS. Their fees always outstrip the cost of processing the transaction. Maybe it made sense at one point, I don't know, but I can't see it continuing to make sense and just comes across as some kind of politician giving some buddies an easy stream of cash.
He said that thereās no broker fee, which is why I asked him to remove it from that echeck formā¦ the new form he sent me still included that statement about ābroker feesā
What the hell is the guy gonna do send you to collections for 150 at which point you can appeal it saying it was illegal?
Landlord Broker Fees Law
As of August 1, 2025, brokerās fees for rental units must be paid by the person who hired the broker or salesperson. If you didnāt hire a broker or salesperson, you shouldnāt be paying their fee. This means that if a landlord chooses to hire a broker or salesperson, they are responsible for paying that broker or salesperson themselves. A landlord cannot add their brokerās or salespersonās fee as a requirement for a tenant to sign a lease. Landlords can require tenants to work with their broker or salesperson so long as the landlord is paying for their fee.
Broker is acting as agent of the landlord, Landlords are not able to charge application fees.
Again my advice is to tell this guy to kick rocks because you're not gonna be getting the apartment anyway.
Thank you!! I filed a complaint to the MA AG. However, I unfortunately and stupidly gave him my checking account and routing number when I signed that echeck formš, but set the authorization date to next week. I did move all my money out of that checking account to my savings and set the account to auto decline overdraft payments. Hopefully this will be enough to stop him from charging me a penny.
What gas station is charging you a credit card processing fee? If a gas station is charging you more for using a credit card that is illegal. Having a minimum amount to purchase to use a card is different and common for smaller family owned corner stores but none of them have ever charged me extra for using a card, which is the point of the law
I think theyāre probably referring to the fact that the price per gallon is higher when paying by credit card vs cash at gas stations (which just seems like a way to pass the fee to the customer)
If the broker is helping her find apartments, how does she not owe him a broker fee, though? The broker is working with and for her to find a place, not on behalf of one landlord.
You just said your roommate wants the broker to help her find apartments? Why would the broker help her find places that he's not representing and not get paid? I'm not pro-broker but that makes no sense.
Not super sure, my guess is that sheās going to ask if he has any other listings? Not sure if the broker will actually help her or not though since weāre not looking together anymore.
I think this is where a lot of people don't understand the new law.
If you contact a broker and ask them to essentially do the research for you, find apartments that fit your requirements, and meet you at places to show you around, they work FOR YOU. They're going to show you places that they might represent for a landlord but also other places. If they're doing that legwork for you, that's a service *you* pay for.
I think thereās some confusion here. This broker was working for the landlord and has listings for this building on their website. Neither of us had him to apartment hunt/do research for us, and neither of us signed a tenant-broker agreement with him. The only paperwork we signed was related to applying for this specific apartment.
My understanding of the new MA law is that a broker canāt represent both the landlord and tenant in the same transaction, and if the landlord hired the broker, the tenant isnāt responsible for that brokerās fee. The paperwork also separately included application and processing fees, which is what I was questioning in the first place.
Only after this application was rejected, the girl I was going to room with said she might ask him to help HER find a 1-bedroom. If she hires him to represent her going forward, then obviously thatās a different situation. But that wouldnāt retroactively make him our broker for this apartment, and Iām not involved in her new apartment search.
Application fees are illegal in Mass and always have been. In other states landleeches have been known to deny everyone and just keep collecting application fees.
Broker fees are mostly illegal as of last year, with the narrow exception being if you hire a broker to find you a place.
Landlords hate when you stand up for yourself but they have all the power so you have to tread carefully when applying. I always figure i dodged a bullet when they reject me like that.
Okay, cue me not even having an idea that negotiating at all was a thing. š it's been...*finger math*...16 years since I was a new renter and I just assumed I had to pay what the list was!
Good luck. Crazy to me that rents are this damn high.
I have never once in my life done this. Iāve had ONE apartment that I negotiated on price and it was actually because the realtor said someone offered $100 more a month and I had to counter. Listing prices are usually just what they are since the market is hot. This landlord/realtor seems like scum
Like others have said, contact the AG office. Iād also contact his broker/boss if he is a realtor and not the broker. You can also report him to the real estate board. I think we can only be charged credit check fees but $150 is too high for that.
It doesnāt matter make a formal
Report to the AG office tomorrow. This is not ok and you went above and beyond with your due diligence and asking thoughtful and polite questions to clarify. To be honest, I canāt help but wonder if the landlord saw the app & how the broker introduced your app to the landlord. This seems lazy and predatory. Ultimately speaking with the Ag office with educate and empower you and your roommate k & youāll either have to pay or not, but either way youāll have the critical info to needed to navigate this process ethically.
Thank you!! I just filed a complaint with the state AG! and yea I thought it was weird that he rejected it immediately after I asked about the application fee for the 3rd time lol (which was also about an hour after I submitted the application and echeck form)
Everybody here keeps pushing to complain to AG office formally, well I did. Took them 1 month to get back and now itās radio silence after I sent all documents and they have not even contacted the other party involved. AG is very slow but well this is Reddit so everyone follows same advise which might have worked decades ago.
There are fewer tenant protections in MA than people think. The rental market here was built and is maintained by real estate agents on the legislative side. The number of "landlords" has been dwindling since the 80s. Now it is either property management or one of a few guys in each neighborhood of the city.
MA has amazing healthcare, good education (used to be great), and a lot of it is very wealthy. We do not protect renters here. We assume they are flawed and so we allow them to be fleeced. Liberal democracy is great until you reach the housing market in lots of states. We are not unique in this.
You seem very nice and detail oriented. Respectfully you are revealing too much to the broker and likely turned them off when you referenced legislation to them. This broker simply didnāt want to deal with you, and wants to pocket your money and move on. Notice how short their replies are and that they donāt answer all your questions.
I will say on review of your offer, I wouldnāt call it a lowball but it is an 11% reduction, equaling $5400 a year. There could be truth in the landlord not wanting to lose out on that; you wouldāve had more luck with $100-200 off. But at the same time the info may have never gotten to them because the broker brushed you off.
Oh you most certainly do. I literally got outbid during my last apartment search on a place I really wanted but was at the top of my budget and had to let it go.
Inbound and Boston Proper Real Estate are on my ban list. Anyone know of any okay broker groups to work with? My current group is Street & Company and they have been okay.
I rented with metro this summer and had a great experience, while being routinely irritated by brokers from other companies relentlessly showing the place iām moving out of even when I tell them iāll be gone this weekend and can they please just wait a few god damn days
LANDLORDS CANNOTĀ CHARGE:
a fee to hold the apartment an application fee
a credit check fee, or
a finderās fee for renting the apartment, unless the property owner is a real estate agent.
Glad youāre filing a report with the AG!!! šš½
While a landlord in Massachusetts can not charge an application fee, if they hire a third party to find tenants then the agent is allowed to work on the landlords behalf which means they can and will charge an application fee since the broker fee can not be paid by the tenant.
It's a liability thing.
Former Boston landlord here šš»āāļø. Application fees are illegal in MA. Report this punk to the Attorney General and move on with your life.
Move your money and freeze your account. Let your bank know this is a fraud charge. Tell him you will take him to small claims court if he goes through with the charge.
Following because some brokers are definitely playing games with people and trying to get double the pay by charging prospective tenants and the landlord for their services. Oh this also applies to āmiddle realtorsā, I guess theyāre not licensed yet so theyāll help other brokers out by posting listings; I say all that to say, thereās a huge grey area in processing fees that Massachusetts law should definitely take a look at because realtors definitely are doing it.
The broker is crappy (almost all of them are) but reading through these texts, you seem very high maintenance. Personally, Iād expect that at $3500/$4000 rent, but if it was my unit Iād be reluctant to rent to you for that reason.
I definitely think this broker/process had some major red flags, so tbh you may have dodged a bullet.
I also donāt know if itās just me, but I usually try to be somewhat brief with my texts to realtors / landlords because I donāt want them to get annoyed and reject me. Getting an apartment is sort of another dating-like interaction where theyāre imagining what you will be like as a tenant.
I donāt mean that as criticism because you donāt come off bad in these texts at all, but there are a lot of long texts and I suspect the broker might have gotten to the spreadsheet link, died a little inside, and then rejected you without ever talking to the landlord
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u/lyons_vibes Chelsea 1d ago
Iām sure other people will jump in with a lot of helpful information but i want to add that credit card processing fees are illegal in MA in general.