Questions About Subletting
Hello. I’ve been renting a rent-stabilized apartment in Brooklyn for about 14 years, but am now in China for the next year. I didn’t want to lose my apartment, so I arranged an informal sublet with the brother of a friend. I didn’t bother to tell my landlord because my apartment is well below market-rate…
Hello. I’ve been renting a rent-stabilized apartment in Brooklyn for about 14 years, but am now in China for the next year. I didn’t want to lose my apartment, so I arranged an informal sublet with the brother of a friend. I didn’t bother to tell my landlord because my apartment is well below market-rate and I was concerned that they’d probably look for a way to get me out if they knew. Nor did I check my lease for any sub-clause concerning this, as I felt it would be beside the point (for the above reason). The super is already coming around asking questions. No sublease was signed; what recourse do I have? Among other things, if I do make an official request to my landlord (clearly after the fact), could I say that I at first thought my trip would be temporary and that they were initially apartment-sitting, but that now work will require me to be away for a longer time and that my apartment-sitters will now be subletting from me instead? Or are there any other loopholes I can use here? Thanks…
OP, your “loophole” is under the provisions for sharing your apartment with a roommate sited in the link to Tenant.net by Oxygen above.
“5. You must inform the landlord of the name of a new roommate within 30 days after the roommate moves in, or within 30 days after a request by your landlord for the roommate’s name. Failure to notify the landlord carries no penalty.”
That’s pretty important about carrying no penalty.
PS teachinginchina, Where do we send the bill?
Instruct the brother of your friend to say nothing if questioned. He can pretend not to speak English. Don’t start making up stories. Don’t start planning intricate ruses.
Speak with an attorney and find out what you need to due to legitimate a potential sublet or prepare to either forfeit the teaching in China and/or your apartment of 14 years. It will be money well spent. If you try to game the system and trick your landlord, and he has the monetary incentive to get rid of you, as you claim he has, you may just find yourself enmeshed in a lawsuit(s) and having to spend thousands of dollars just to defend your right to continue living in your apartment.
[cont.]
…bad faith by withholding consent.
4. If your apartment is rent stabilized, the following provisions also apply:
You cannot charge your subtenant more than your current rent unless the apartment is furnished during the sublet. In this case, a 10 percent surcharge may be added. The landlord may also collect a vacancy-allowance increase during the term of the sublet. It is rolled back when the prime tenant returns. The increase is the vacancy allowance, if any, provided in the Rent Guidelines Board Order in effect at the beginning of the lease, provided the lease is a renewal lease.
You must establish, and should say so in your initial letter to your landlord, that at all times you will maintain the apartment as your primary residence and intend to reoccupy it at the expiration of the sublease. Primary-residence status requires that during your absence from your apartment, you pay New York City resident income tax, listing the apartment as your residence, and that all records of your residence, including your driver’s license, car registration and voting records, reflect the apartment as your home.
You, as the prime tenant, retain the right to a renewal lease, and the rights and status of a “tenant in occupancy” as they relate to conversion to condominium or cooperative ownership.
The law limits your sublet to two years, including the term of the proposed sublease, out of the four-year period preceding the termination date of the proposed sublease. Your landlord may agree to waive this limitation, but the law allows him to refuse. There is no harm in asking. If he says yes, get it in writing.
If your lease expires during the term of the proposed sublease, your subtenant is subject to your renewal lease. The landlord is required to offer and accept a renewal lease from you during the sublet period just as if you were in occupancy.
Should you overcharge your subtenant, he or she shall be entitled to damages of three times the overcharge and may also be awarded attorneys’ fees and interest from the date of the overcharge. ”
If you have questions, here is a good place to ask them:
http://tenant.net/phpBB2/
Good luck.
The law for rent regulated tenants allows you to sublet your apartment for two years in each four year period. This is your right by law, regardless whether your lease grants you this: if you are rent stabilized and your lease states otherwise, the law trumps your lease. You have rights, but along with your rights come obligations, it’s a two way street: fail to meet your obligations and you may forfeit your rights. It’s great that you have a teaching opportunity, but it’s time to become a student and get a better education in NYC housing law.
So yes, you have the right to go and teach in China for two years and sublet your apartment, the only problem is that you did not do the sublet via the correct legal procedures, but rather that you attempted to sublet informally. I would suggest contacting a tenant attorney…not an all-purpose attorney but specifically a tenant attorney whose practice is focused primarily on representing tenants in NYC. Call by phone from China and explain the situation and see if you can get a free phone consultation and/or purchase a consultation (usually 45 minutes to one hour where you discuss your situation and get a sense of your options). This can be done via phone and I’m sure payment can be arranged via credit card or other means. You may be able to handle the entire process from where you are in China, casually. OTOH, yo umay need to contract an attorney to assist you and/or you may need to return to NYC…get some sound legal input before you do anything.
It sounds to me like you may have a ‘roommate’ situation now – that you took on a roommate and that you are just out of the country for a few weeks/months (you haven’t been gone a full year yet, have you)? If an opportunity to teach has opened up in China, maybe you can sublet your apartment to your roommate….he would then become the tenant for the duration of the sublet, and that may even mean he can take on one roommate of his own if he so chooses. Of course, you would have to do this LEGALLY, formally, and with the landlord’s permission in order to preserve your rights to continued tenancy when the sublet terminates.
If you act foolishly now, you very well may lose your apartment. Do not be penny wise and pound foolish. Get advice and/or representation from a practitioner who is experienced in these issues.
You will need to document in writing many things during this process. This is NOT a matter to be handled informally as you are now doing. You need to document the process in writing so you will have proof in the event you are unreasonably denied the sublet by the landlord and also so that you will retain your tenancy rights after the sublet terminates.
Here is some more info for you and for the edification of those following this thread (sorry for the length but this cuts through much confusion):
http://tenant.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4933
“Subletting
Even if your lease forbids it, you have the right under the law to sublease your apartment, and the lease provision is null and void. The subletting procedures below apply generally to tenants renting an apartment pursuant to an existing lease in a building having four or more residential units. The exceptions are tenants in public housing, limited-profit housing, or housing subject to rent control. Rent controlled tenants may, however, sublet if they have a current or prior lease that contains a clause permitting subletting, or if the landlord consents. To sublet, you must closely follow these procedures:
1. Send a letter to the landlord by certified mail, return receipt requested, requesting permission to sublease. (You should retain copies of this correspondence, as well as all other correspondence sent to the landlord.) This letter must contain the following information:
The term (starting and ending dates) of the sublet, not to exceed two years. (If you are uncertain about the term, choose the longer period, because it is difficult to extend the sublet. You can always return early.)
The name of the proposed subtenant. (Choose someone you know if possible. Subleasing to strangers is risky and often full of unhappy surprises.)
The business and permanent home address of the proposed subtenant.
Your reason for subletting (work transfer, school attendance, family crisis, etc). Your reason must reflect an intent to return.
Your address for the term of the sublet.
The written consent of any co-tenant or guarantor of your lease.
A copy of the proposed sublease, to which a copy of your lease is attached, if available.
A separate letter wherein both you and your proposed subtenant state that the attached sublease is a true copy of such sublease. This statement must be signed and notarized.
2. Within 10 days after you mail your initial request, your landlord is allowed to ask for additional information, in order to determine if rejecting your request would be unreasonable. Expect a list of inquiries about the proposed sublessee’s resources and rental history.
3. Within 30 days after you mail the initial notice, or after you mail the additional information if requested, your landlord must send you a notice of consent to the sublet, or their reasons for refusal.
If your landlord consents, you may sublease, but you remain liable for future rents.
If your landlord reasonably withholds consent, you can’t sublet, and you are not released from the lease and can be held liable for future rents.
If your landlord fails to send a response within the 30 days, this shall be deemed consent to the subletting.
If your landlord unreasonably withholds consent, you may sublet in accordance with the request. If your landlord then tries to evict you, you may recover the costs of any eviction proceedings, together with attorneys’ fees, if it is found that your landlord acted in
Hey OP do you feel like a crook? Teaching in China? Charging the sublet much more than the actual rent right? Shame on you! Hopefully you don’t get caught trying such treachery over there…can be punishable by imprisonment or even worse.
You are abusing the system in a rather disgusting way and such corruption clearly illustrates why RS & RC needs to be eliminated or revised significantly.
BTW we are market rate tenants right here in Brooklyn.
When you do things in the dark..they always come to light.
It’s really shocking and disgusting how some posters who call themselves “pro-tenant” (they’re really not pro-tenant; they’re pro rent stabilization. Rent stabilization actually hurts many tenants) support these low rent freeloaders who break the law.
I hope the LL throws this guy out on his ass.
The entire RS system is sick.
rent control makes me so angry that my throat closes up.
socialism. disgusting.
as the crack wears off I would be interested in a refresher on the difference between stablized and controlled, if anyone wants to… Still, my position: free handouts of any kind distort markets and invite abuse. They are only socially useful for true welfare cases.
And by the way, teaching english abroad is not the freakin peace corps.