New York · TitleNew York private transfer fees: void obligations, liability and the seller's written disclosure

A private transfer fee is a fee required by a private obligation and payable on the transfer of an interest in real property, or for the right to make or accept the transfer, whether a fixed amount or a percentage of the value or price. Not included: the price paid to the seller, a broker's commission, a lender's interest and fees, rent and lease charges, a payment to release an option or right of first refusal, taxes, fees and assessments imposed by a governmental authority, and amounts payable to a homeowners', condominium or cooperative association under its governing documents, among others (RPL §472). New York's legislature declared that these obligations violate the state's policy favoring marketable title (§471). A private transfer fee obligation recorded or entered into on or after the statute's effective date doesn't run with the land, can't be enforced against any owner, purchaser or mortgagee, and is void; the statute doesn't presume older ones valid (§473). Anyone who records or enters into such an obligation in its favor or a third party's is liable for all damages, including any fee paid, and for attorneys' fees and costs to recover it or to quiet title (§474). Before the buyer signs a binding contract, the seller must give the purchaser a written statement disclosing any private transfer fee obligation, describing it and stating that such obligations are subject to the statute's prohibitions (§475). For an obligation imposed before the statute, the receiver had to record a "Notice of Private Transfer Fee Obligation" within six months; if it didn't, the owner may convey free of the fee (§476).