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July marked a flurry of policy changes for rental properties. Earlier in the month, Governor Maura Healey signed a law that meant that landlords can no longer require renters to pay broker fees. This past Friday, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that landlords cannot legally deduct the cost of painting, carpet repair, and “reasonable wear and tear” expenses from a tenant’s security deposit.

To break down what these new changes mean for renters, I spoke with Lizzie Torres, Housing Policy Associate at MassHousing and Allston tenant.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Explain in layman’s terms what “no broker’s fees” means. In the past, there’s always either a realtor or a broker that is often the communication person between a landlord and a tenant. In order to make sure that they get payment for that relationship connection, they are paid something that is called a “broker’s fee.” 

Up until recently, that burden of payment has been placed on the tenant, whether or not they ever hired the broker. Particularly in Allston, you’ll see tons of listings on Craigslist and even on Facebook where a landlord is just posting a room that’s available, or an apartment that’s available. The expectation is that, because they used a broker to help spread the word, whether or not you ever had contact with that broker, you were still expected to pay a broker’s fee.

That creates a huge financial obstacle for a lot of people, because if you’re paying for the first month’s and last month’s rent — which is pretty standard — a security deposit — which is also fairly standard — all three of those in Massachusetts tend to be the equivalent of one month’s rent. You’re [also] paying a broker’s fee — that is the equivalent of four months of rent that you have been expected to pay up in order to just simply get access to an apartment, which is not possible for most people. 

We are seeing this as a good win, as far as the ability to access housing. It’ll help create an opportunity for folks to actually get into the apartments that they desire to get into. Hoping that it helps, like folks who have low to moderate incomes to be able to access housing as well.

Some are saying that rent will potentially go up to account for those fees. The big thing that I am going to warn people about — and this is actually whether or not the brokers’ fee situation was going to get in — I do anticipate is that there’s going to be an attachment of other illegal fees in order to make up for it. 

People should know application fees and re-sign fees are illegal in Massachusetts. I just anticipate that fees are suddenly just going to be attached to things. 

I will encourage folks to call the Attorney General’s Office whenever they see a fee to verify that it is a valid fee that they’re allowed to be charged. I expect that that’s going to be the work around a lot of property managers are going to start doing. 

How does this affect brokers in Boston? I have to say they this for myself: when I was doing the research for it — New York City had passed its ban on brokers’ fees originally — I was actually in contact with a broker in New York City who was in favor of banning broker fees for most renters, because she quite literally said it actually doesn’t affect us who pays for it, because it’s going to get paid. 

It is a service that is still going to get paid, and the idea that landlords are alleging that they can’t afford to pay it is just not a sensible one — considering how high rents have become in so many parts of these high-demand cities like Boston and New York City. 

For renters, why is it better for rents to potentially go up than to not pay for brokers’ fees?  A payment spread over 12 months is a huge difference than the upfront payment of four months worth of rent. 

A lot of property isn’t just the cost in and of itself. It’s also the time period needed to gather that sort of financing. 

It’s still going to still be worthwhile. Is it going to fix everything with housing affordability and accessibility? Absolutely not. If we’re thinking about housing as like a Jenga game of some sort, it’s like one little thing that we can start to pull before we can start bringing housing prices down.

Explain the recent “wear and tear” ruling and why that’s important for tenants.

It was a recent court case that was made by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court that said that landlords cannot legally deduct the cost of painting, carpet repair and other expenses that are deemed to be reasonable wear and tear from a tenant’s security deposit. It ruled that landlords also may not charge tenants for professional cleaning of an apartment, which I have seen so commonly around Allston. 

There was an allegation that landlords are routinely violating state law by retaining unreasonable amounts from security deposits. I have heard so often that people just lose their security deposits. If we’re going on the rent cycle in Allston, if you move in on September 1 into a new apartment, the deposit should be returned to you no later than October 1. That is a requirement, and that is by law — it’s a decades-old law — so wear and tear not being a charge for landlords has always been on the books and has not been as enforced just based on lack of information. 

Once you have the security deposit, it’s really easy to just not give it back. Tenants leave it behind, and it’s a huge loss to them in some ways, because it’s not supposed to be a payment you make that is just staying with the landlord. It is supposed to be just in case there is some quite severe damage to the apartment in some way, shape or form as well, and that is for them to offset the costs anticipated if something crazy happened to an apartment. 

However, for normal wear-and-tear — sweeping, brooming, professional cleaning — those are all supposed to be costs that are incurred by a landlord, because it is their responsibility legally to take care of the apartment.

Are there just any other myths about brokers fees or wear and tear that people should also have busted? When we start to see prices go up, the big thing we’re going to have to hold our elected officials accountable for is that broker space is just one segment of the affordability crisis. The next one is definitely going to be a conversation on rent control. I think landlords are starting to see brokers’ fees as the gate opening to renters’ rights in so many ways.

Not all landlords — there are lots of great landlords who certainly were in support of getting rid of brokers’ fees for tenants and had no issues with it, although I will say most of those landlords are also never charging their tenants brokers’ fees. 

How is this upcoming election season going to affect housing policy? A large part of it is knowing that state elections and city elections are this year, and because so many renters move during September — September is when the primaries are. Jumping ahead, as soon as you know where you’re about to live, make sure you register to vote there as quickly as possible when you have a signed lease in hand.

Those are the people you’re going to be talking to the most about your experience as a tenant, and those are the people we need to talk to about renters’ rights and all of these sorts of things. The reason why brokers’ fees got to be disassembled is because renters focused on the State House.

With everything going on federally, that can be really overwhelming. I think it’s important to realize that we do have so much control in our local elections and in our state elections. Make sure you register for those and start to research them as soon as possible.

What organizations or people should renters should turn to when they want to know more about their rights? The Greater Boston Tenants Association is a great resource for learning about what your rights are, and for connecting with other Allston renters so that you feel less crazy about that experience.

City Life / Vida Urbana — they’re a wonderful resource if you’re somewhat cash-strapped and need help with a scary letter or anything you get from your landlord that seems like an attempt at eviction. 

Greater Boston Legal Services offers services for folks who need a tenant attorney in some way, shape, or form, so that you do not have to do it alone. Housing court can be very intimidating, and sometimes it’s just helpful to have a lawyer walk you through the paperwork and make sure you are asserting your rights.

Most importantly, the City of Boston does walk-in legal clinics, and they are on Zoom. If you can’t afford a lawyer or you’re afraid to go down a legal pathway right away, you can speak to a barred attorney with the City of Boston about your tenants’ rights. They’ll at least be able to tell you whether a lease agreement is legal, whether a fee is legal, or whether your landlord’s behavior in trying to problem-solve something is legal.

They also do mediations with you and your landlord, so you can avoid a bad relationship. Anytime you can have some kind of mediation, they can help act as a go-between as well.

What do you see for the future of policy and housing for Allston? I think what we’re hitting right now — especially because the housing crisis is really starting to become a bubble — is that we’re now a city that’s very renter-heavy, and that includes the voter base as well. So you’re going to see an increased amount of pressure for renters’ rights, asking for autonomy in their ability to live in their home.

When we try to whitewash the solution as “you need to buy a home in order to have autonomy,” the financial reality is that you’re not going to get there anytime soon. We’re now seeing millennials, in particular, who are going to be renters for a lot longer than their parents or grandparents ever were. That means we now have grown adults with families and children who will continue renting, and they’re going to approach renters’ rights very differently than we’ve seen in the past.

Before, I think we were able to snooze on renters’ rights because it was seen as a small minority of very low-income families, or students in Allston who simply weren’t staying long enough to organize. That’s no longer the case in Boston. If you’re a renter here, you look like a lot of different kinds of people now — and that gives a lot of power to infrastructure that’s always existed.

The Greater Boston Tenants Union isn’t a new organization. It’s been around for a long time. But now you have longtime folks partnering with people who may have only just arrived, or who plan to stay for a long time, and they’re working together. I think that coalition-building is going to be something we see putting pressure on a lot of our state and local officials. ■