Agent vs Direct Listing

[nk_london]

My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: New York

Hello,

I need some advise asap so if anyone can give me some help I would really appreciate it. I was looking for a sub-lease in NY and found a listing on one website which an agent listed. I went to view the apartment and liked it. When i got home i searched for some more and found a listing by the tenant for the same apt on another website but this one would be no fee. My mistake is seeing the no fee ad after the fee ad and viewing the apartment through the agent but i didn't sign anything and honestly paying a months commission for an ad seems rich to me esp because the tenant himself is posting a direct ad out there as well. According to my friend i have to go through agent because he showed me first and could sue me but i have no arrangement with him. Also it's a sub-lease so theoretically the tenant is still holding the lease on the records.

Can someone please advise if i should just drop this because i want the apartment but can't afford it with the commission

[Mr. Knowitall]

If you have no contract with the agent, written or oral, then you have no contract with the agent.

[SChinFChin]

My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: New York

Hello,

I need some advise asap so if anyone can give me some help I would really appreciate it. I was looking for a sub-lease in NY and found a listing on one website which an agent listed. I went to view the apartment and liked it. When i got home i searched for some more and found a listing by the tenant for the same apt on another website but this one would be no fee. My mistake is seeing the no fee ad after the fee ad and viewing the apartment through the agent but i didn't sign anything and honestly paying a months commission for an ad seems rich to me esp because the tenant himself is posting a direct ad out there as well. According to my friend i have to go through agent because he showed me first and could sue me but i have no arrangement with him. Also it's a sub-lease so theoretically the tenant is still holding the lease on the records.

Can someone please advise if i should just drop this because i want the apartment but can't afford it with the commission

Even though you signed nothing, I know of cases where people were sued by the agent. I don't know if the agent drove you over, or sent you over, or if the agent had any wriiten agreement with the person leasing the space.

I'm a LL, and I have rented to a tenant who got my listing through an agent, and then the next day saw my listing in the paper. I had no written agreement with the agent, it was considered an open listing, but I franky told my tenant that I have heard of landlords and tenants being sued in these instances. I happened to ask my attorney when this came up, and it so happened that he had two clients at the time being sued under the similar circumstances.

So I told my tenant that unless he paid the commission, either he'll be sued, or the agent is going to come after me. And because my rent was very reasonable, several other people also wanted the place, I rather rent to the others as those people found my ad directly, so I won't have the agent breathing down my neck. Saying it bluntly, renting to him means "I'm looking to be sued".

The tenant wanted the my apartment badly, so he paid the commission which at the time ran 10% of the annual rent.

One thing you might want to find out is what type of arrangement the owner had with the agent. I read of cases in the papers that agents simply took owner listings from the classifieds, claiming them to be their own, and trying the collect a commission. But if the owner gave the agent the OK, even for an open listing, then you might have some problems.