Expensive Application Fee

is it a rental building or a coop/condo? typically the coop/condo sublet processing fees are higher then rentals.

Yes I was referring to entirely rental building NOT condo or co-op application. Lets for example if I would be interested in applying for an apt at 95 Christopher st. The management would charge $75 per application. But since I signed a fee form with this brokerage company I have to take it with this broker and he tells me he collects $300 application fee.

It's also called a "commission."

no a commission is charged when you actually get the apartment. I would call any other mark up extortion if the broker is trying to pocket additional money.

you are being lied to jenne. 95 Chris ONLY CHARGES $20 via credit card for a credit check-that's it. what's the name of the brokerage?

application fees vary alot - depending on whether it's a rental, co-op or condo building. Usually, the most expensive application fees are condominium.

Manhattan rental Landlord here. 25-30 self managed 4-5 story buildings.

We charge $40 per applicant, and often times waive it anyway

I tell everyone you can learn a lot about how a building is run by:
1. The application fee (how much you are going to get squeezed on every little thing, mainly security at the end)
2. The mailbox/intercom labels (How well the building is run/managed)
3. The dust on the hallway lighting fixtures (how well the building is cleaned)

feel free to pass that info on to anyone...

The broker shouldn't be making money off of the application fee. Any check made out to the broker in excess of $100 is too much. Any other checks, if you are getting to the several hundred level, should be made out to the landlord, the managing agent, etc., except for the specific broker fee if any.

To me, any building / landlord that collects or splits part of a broker fee itself, is not a building you should move into. I'm no fan of brokers being paid by the renter, but if the landlord itself is making money off of the broker fee instead of the rent, I'd say avoid that landlord like the plague. They should have incentive to keep tenants long-term, not to have turnover because they are indifferent.

MAV is entirely correct.

i had this problem back when i was in college.
some douche speigelman or schmegmaman, something like that.
anyway, he took my money and a couple of my other student friends for some application fee, and then never called us.
what we did is we found his listings, camped out in front of the place (not really camped, it was around 5 pm when he had the openhouses), and as the others showed up, we told them dont pay the fee and the guy was a crook, and when he showed up we called him a douche (or what ever the similar term was back then, maybe jive turkey?)
anyway, i never got my money back, and i think my point average went down about .25 points due to all the time i spent messing with this guy, but i did meet this hot girl and got to make out with her, so it was about an even trade off.
bottom line is, the guy is a crook, report him to every thing you can. at least you will give him some hassle. let us know this guy's name, or at the very least, ask him where the money went.

(btw, not howard speigelman, howard was never a douche to me, just so happened the jerk off had a similar name)

If you give us an estimate of how long ago this occurred, we might be able to figure out what term between douche and jive turkey was appropriate at the time.