What Fees You Need to Pay While Renting Apartment in NYC

By: ROS Team

If you think that rent is the only thing to be paid for your apartment before moving in, you need to think again.

Renting an apartment in NYC requires you to pay several fees apart from your monthly rent. These charges can be upfront, mandatory, hidden, or voluntary. The number of fees will be determined by the type of rental apartment, amenities, credit history, penalties, and other services like broker and insurance. Though you calculate the rent you can afford with the help of the Rent Calculator.

Here we have outlined the most common fees a tenant is likely to pay while renting an apartment in NYC.

1. Broker Fee:

A broker’s fee usually ranges from one month’s rent to 12-15% of a year’s total rent. For example, the average rental price in the Bronx is $1708, meaning that you could have to pay a broker fee of nearly $3074.

While that may pinch you as upfront charges, keep in mind that a broker does a lot of work for you to find you the desired apartment. They take care of all the paperwork, handle the showing, monitor the lease signing, and negotiate the rate for you. They deserve to be paid for this hard work.

But make sure to ask your broker if he is being paid by a landlord to source you as the tenant. If so, you can convince them to deduct it from your broker fee.

Remember, you have to pay the broker fee only once and you don’t need to pay it again while renewing your lease or bringing in a roommate.

2. Guarantor Fee:

Landlords often require a guarantor for students, foreigners, and those lacking credit history. A guarantor can be anyone, such as a friend, relative, or employer. A guarantor is liable to pay rent if a tenant fails to do so. If you don’t have somebody to be your guarantor, opt for professional guarantor services that charge 70-80% of the monthly rent for U.S. renters and 90-110% rent for international renters on the lease of a year.

3. Rental Insurance Fee:

Renter’s insurance covers the possessions of the renters. It offers protection against explosion, fire, hail, riots, smoke, theft, vandalism, vehicles, wind, and other accidents. But it doesn’t offer any protection to the structure or building as a renter doesn’t have any ownership in it.

It generally costs around $187 a year.

4. Amenity Fee:

You might be asked to pay amenity fees separately for the facilities such as a gym or a rooftop. However, some landlords may include the fee in your base rent. The amenity fee is paid monthly or yearly. It is available on either an opt-in basis or mandatory costs.

5. Late Rent Fee:

Late rent fee is imposed on the tenants falling behind the payment. Or you can say that it is kind of fine. Generally, you will be charged with a late fee if you are a week late from the rent date, which will cost $50 or 5% of one month’s rent.

6. Application Fee:

A landlord might run a credit check, background check, and other verification to determine your financial status and character. And it costs a small amount of money known as a rental application fee. And this fee is charged from a tenant.

However, you may not be charged more than $20, and keep in mind that it is the only fee a landlord can ask from a tenant.

So these are the fees you have to pay separately from your rent. However, be careful if you feel that you are being unfairly charged. If so, download this form to complain about the concerned party.

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