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By Melanie Marich

At a raucous City Council hearing Wednesday, renters, their supporters and the real estate industry went head-to-head over a new bill that would ban forced broker fees for  New York City apartment-hunters. 

Hundreds of people descended on City Hall to testify about the FARE Act, a bill that would make whoever hires a broker — be it tenant or landlord — pay their fee. Currently, prospective tenants commonly pay broker fees, even when they may have found an apartment on their own.

The bill, spearheaded by Councilmember Chi Ossé (D-Brooklyn) has garnered close to a veto-proof majority of 33 in the 51-member Council.

More than 400 people signed up to testify, in panels that alternated between supporters and opponents, with some waiting as long as two hours to enter the hearing room. Hundreds more watched via a livestream of the hearing, held by the Council’s Committee on Consumer and Worker Protection.

The fervor over the bill speaks to the stress felt by New Yorkers in a super-heated housing market where the rental apartment vacancy rate, measured last year at 1.4%, is the lowest it’s been in more than 50 years.

The Real Estate Board of New York, the bill’s most vocal opponent, organized hundreds of real estate agents to come to the hearing, many donning matching T-shirts that read “Say NO to Intro 360.”

“The FARE Act, while well-intentioned, could lead to higher rents and reduced listing visibility, ultimately harming tenants,” testified Brian Phillips, an associate broker at Douglas Elliman and the chair of the New York City working group for the New York State Association for Realtors.

New York City is one of only two U.S. cities where tenants are expected to pay a broker fee, even if they did not hire a broker, according to an analysis by the industry trade publication the Real Deal. Bill supporters said it’s past time to do away with that norm.

Annie Abreu, a recent law school graduate who lives with her mother in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, testified that being low income for most of her life has been a barrier to finding secure and affordable housing.

“Even now as I’m about to enter a new income bracket, I’m faced with a new obstacle: the broker’s fee,” said Abreu. “I do not think there is any reason for me to pay one month’s rent or more to a person a landlord hired to post something on StreetEasy or Zillow or God knows where, riddled with typos and lies, only for me to get the apartment on my own and not get responses to my basic questions.”