MEEB Newsletter September 2025

Landlords have traditionally required tenants to pay the broker’s fee when they rent an apartment, and tenants have generally expected to incur that expense. But this standard practice in the rental housing industry is now illegal in Massachusetts as the result of an amendment to the state law governing the registration of real estate brokers and salespeople. That amendment, which took effect August 1, prohibits landlords from requiring tenants to pay the fee for the landlord’s broker.