Adds a surcharge to the fee paid for issuing or reissuing a real estate broker or salesmen license with such surcharge being collected by the department of state and payable to the office of the attorney general, to be used for statewide fair housing testing efforts.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A5363
SPONSOR: Jean-Pierre TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the real property law, in relation to adding a surcharge
to the fee paid for issuing or reissuing a real estate broker or sales-
men license
PURPOSE:
This bill proposes to fund statewide fair housing testing efforts by
implementing a surcharge on the licensing fees for brokers and agents.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1: Amends real property law section 441-b to implement an addi-
tional thirty dollar surcharge for broker's licenses issued or reissued
and an additional ten dollar surcharge for salesperson's licenses issued
or reissued to be collected by the New York State Office of the Attorney
General to be used for statewide fair housing testing efforts.
Section 2: Effective date.
JUSTIFICATION:
On November 17, 2019, Newsday, a media outlet based on Long Island,
published the results of a three-year investigation of discrimination by
real estate agents, revealing evidence of widespread separate and
unequal treatment of minority potential homebuyers and minority communi-
ties on Long Island. Newsday utilized paired testing efforts in its
investigation.
Paired testing is an invaluable tool to identify-and subsequently elimi-
nate-where discrimination is prevalent. Contemporary housing discrimi-
nation has evolved since the pre-fair housing movement; discrimination,
once overt, is now much more implicit. Mechanisms such as coded
language, steering, provision of unequal services and placement of
greater financial requirements on minorities are employed to maintain
residential segregation. These mechanisms occur in such a subtle manner,
some victims are unaware that discrimination has even occurred. Imple-
menting a modest surcharge on the licensing fees for brokers and agents
would provide significant funding dedicated to statewide fair housing
testing efforts, including but not limited to the practice of paired
testing.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New bill
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
To be determined
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
5363
2021-2022 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
February 16, 2021
___________
Introduced by M. of A. JEAN-PIERRE -- read once and referred to the
Committee on Judiciary
AN ACT to amend the real property law, in relation to adding a surcharge
to the fee paid for issuing or reissuing a real estate broker or
salesmen license
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subdivision 1 of section 441-b of the real property law, as
2 amended by section 1 of part S of chapter 58 of the laws of 2017, is
3 amended to read as follows:
4 1. The fee for a license issued or reissued under the provisions of
5 this article entitling a person, co-partnership, limited liability
6 company or corporation to act as a real estate broker shall be one
7 hundred fifty-five dollars plus an additional thirty dollar surcharge.
8 Such surcharge shall be collected by the department of state and payable
9 to the office of the attorney general to be used for statewide fair
10 housing testing efforts. The fee for a license issued or reissued under
11 the provisions of this article entitling a person to act as a real
12 estate salesman shall be fifty-five dollars plus an additional ten
13 dollar surcharge. Such surcharge shall be collected by the department of
14 state and payable to the office of the attorney general to be used for
15 statewide fair housing testing efforts. Notwithstanding the provisions
16 of subdivision seven of section four hundred forty-one-a of this arti-
17 cle, after January first, nineteen hundred eighty-six, the secretary of
18 state shall assign staggered expiration dates for outstanding licenses
19 that have been previously renewed on October thirty-first of each year
20 from the assigned date unless renewed. If the assigned date results in a
21 term that exceeds twenty-four months, the applicant shall pay an addi-
22 tional prorated adjustment together with the regular renewal fee. The
23 secretary of state shall assign dates to existing licenses in a manner
24 which shall result in a term of not less than two years.
25 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD06384-04-1
