The FARE Act fee disclosure — every fee itemized, checked and signed before the lease
Under New York City's FARE Act the landlord gives a new tenant an itemized list of every fee and the tenant signs it before the lease. Seayora checks each fee against the FARE Act and New York's caps, refuses to send one the law forbids, and keeps the signed copy.
A landlord's agent — including any agent who publishes the listing with the landlord's permission — may not charge the tenant a fee. Every fee the tenant must pay must be disclosed clearly in the listing, and the tenant must receive and SIGN an itemized written disclosure of every fee before signing the lease; the landlord keeps it for three years and gives the tenant a copy. Renting may not be conditioned on hiring a broker.
How it works
- Draft a disclosure for the unit and list every fee the tenant pays: first month's rent, the deposit, the background check, anything recurring. Seayora checks each line as you go.
- Say whether a landlord's agent or the listing agent showed the apartment. If one did, no broker fee may be charged to the tenant — under any name.
- Send it for signature. It cannot be sent while any fee is prohibited or over its cap. Once sent it is frozen: what the tenant signs must be what they were shown.
- The tenant signs from the link in their email by typing their name. The signed disclosure is issued as a PDF in Documents, and the link stops working.
- To change a fee after sending, void the disclosure with a reason and draft a new one. A voided disclosure is kept.
The fees, and what the law says about each
| Fee | What the law says |
|---|---|
| First month's rent | Rent, not a fee — but no more than one month in advance. |
| Security deposit (refundable) | No more than one month's rent (Gen. Oblig. Law § 7-108). |
| Background and credit check | The actual cost or $20, whichever is less — waived with a check from the past 30 days. |
| Broker fee to the landlord's agent or listing agent | Not chargeable to the tenant when the landlord's agent or the listing agent is involved — the FARE Act. |
| Move-in, administrative, processing or key fee | Not chargeable before or at the start of the tenancy (RPL § 238-a(1)(a)). |
| Optional amenity (parking, storage, gym) — monthly | Allowed, and it must be disclosed. |
| Pet fee or pet rent — monthly | Allowed, and it must be disclosed. |
| Utility charge — monthly | Allowed, and it must be disclosed. |
| Late fee (only if rent is late) | Only after the rent is five days late, and no more than $50 or 5% of the rent, whichever is less. |
| Returned payment fee (only if a payment is dishonored) | Only if the lease provides for it, within the statute's limit. |
| Another fee | Name it — a fee at signing is barred unless a statute authorizes it. |
Keep the signed disclosure for three years. The tenant can complain to the NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection or call 311.
Frequently asked questions
Does the tenant need a Seayora account to sign?
No. The link in the email is the credential; they open it in any browser, read every fee and sign by typing their name. The link expires after 30 days.
Can I charge a broker fee if the tenant hired their own broker?
A tenant may hire and pay a broker of their own. A landlord's agent — including the agent who listed or showed the apartment — may not charge the tenant.
Is signing the disclosure signing the lease?
No. It confirms the tenant received the list of fees; it is not the lease and does not commit them to rent.
Related guides
- NYC rent stabilization — the legal rent, audited step by step
- Good Cause Eviction in New York City — coverage, the local rent standard and the notice
Related features and guides
- NYC rent stabilization — the legal rent, audited step by step — Documentation. Seayora keeps each rent-stabilized unit's rent history, works its legal regulated rent out lease by lease from the Rent Guidelines Board orders and the law, tracks DHCR registration and renewals, and flags what does not add up — with the citation beside every figure. It never files anything with DHCR.
- Good Cause Eviction in New York City — coverage, the local rent standard and the notice — Documentation. Which of your NYC units the Good Cause Eviction law covers, the exemptions and how each is decided, the highest presumptively reasonable rent increase, and the § 231-c notice every lease and renewal must carry.
- How the legal-rent audit works — the orders, the steps and the findings — Documentation. Each lease in a stabilized unit's history is checked against the Rent Guidelines Board order that governed it, in order, from the base date. The guideline compounds on the rent the previous step produced, preferential rents follow the 2019 rules, and every gap becomes a finding with its law.
- Compliance Alerts & Required Filings — Feature. Seayora watches your properties for new violations and works out which recurring filings each building owes, turns both into a dated checklist, and emails you when something new appears. Live violation data for New York City; rule-based filing obligations across the NYC metro.
- QuickBooks Integration — Feature. Connect QuickBooks Online and bring the chart of accounts, customers, vendors, items, open balances and past transactions into Seayora — checked against QuickBooks’s own trial balance before anything is written.
- NYC Compliance Tracking — Feature. Track New York City property compliance requirements and deadlines alongside the rest of your portfolio operations.