Not for NYC. These brokers worked for the building owners to find renters. That used to be a thing before streeteasy. Post streeteasy, these guys were making 10-20k for letting you in an apartment and shrugging.

The issue was LL's had zero incentive to do anything about it since they dont pay the guy the renter does. On top of that it led to VERY perverse incentives where a LL would get a shady broker to split the fee with the owner and they'd just kick the tennent out every year.

This was super common in mid/to high income apts, like the ones a decently paid software engineer would live in. In low income, not worth the trouble, in very high income to small a market.

Getting rid of that alone makes the law worth it since it meaningfully disrupted peoples lives.

The brokers work for the client, renters have no choice in who they use, little insight into their fees (often they are only added at the end of the process, like all good junk fees), and are in no position to negotiate price. Tenants aren't being served by the broker, landlords are. So let landlords pay the fee so there is some downward pressure on broker pricing.

Nope. It’s almost sure to lower total cost of rental.