Written Sublet Agreement?
I am a tenant and will be subletting my apartment, with the landlord’s permission. Can I have my subletter sign an agreement which is similar to a lease, but for subletting? Are there such agreements available for free online? There are many such agreements available for purchase online. Does anyone know if these are useful…
I am a tenant and will be subletting my apartment, with the landlord’s permission.
Can I have my subletter sign an agreement which is similar to a lease, but for subletting?
Are there such agreements available for free online?
There are many such agreements available for purchase online. Does anyone know if these are useful and legally binding?
Thanks for your help.
humanbeing – the Landlord is not being generous by running a credit check. You’ve indicated that this is a big landlord – they generally pay a flat fee for credit checks and it costs them nothing to run another one. Also, it’s in the Landlord’s interest for you to get a subletter that will pay you the rent – while the L has no legal recourse against the subletter, they don’t really want to sue you for amounts due.
The landlord is however being generous for letting you out of the lease for the price of a one-month deposit.
Whoa! My landlord just said he’d run a credit check on subletters for me, if I can’t find tenants to sign a new lease.
Very generous… he has no obligation to do this!
hancockone:
Thank you very much!
I think I misused the term ‘assigning’. My landlord has given me three options:
1 – sublet (self-explanatory)
2- find a new tenant. My lease would be completely canceled and the new tenant would get their own, new, 1-year lease. I’m not sure but I gather this is different from assigning a lease -? I imagine that ‘assigning’ means someone else takes over my existing lease for the remainder of its duration. This is not what I would be doing.
3 – forfeit my 1-month deposit, which would go to paying a broker to find a new tenant. This also would release me from my lease.
By the way –
These options were offered verbally by the landlord. I’m trusting that he really will allow them.
We’ve spoken several times during my tenant search and he’s never changed his story or said anything that sounded shifty.
I once asked if I should submit my intent to find a new tenant in writing and he said, no need, just find someone who seems reliable and responsible, and send them to him for credit check etc.
Hope this will all go as planned…!?
A couple of years ago I wanted out of a lease. I contacted the management company’s in-house counsel and he advised me to get a broker to find a new tenant (the new tenant pays the broker’s fee) and if the tenant was acceptable, they’d cancel my lease and write a new lease for the new tenant. I contacted the broker that had got the apartment for me, and all worked out well. That was before the market tanked however, and it was a desirable building in a desirable neighborhood in Queens. If the market rent has gone down, you can still get a new tenant but you’re on the hook for the difference in rent. My old landlord was not interested in maintaining relationships with tenants that had moved out, so they didn’t want an assigned lease or a sublet, just a completely new lease.
Snezan –
Thank you very much for your help. I just sent you an email.
“As an added measure you can have the agreement notarized which will overrule any claim that the agreement was fraudulently made.”
really? no fraud in a notarized document?
all a notary means is that someone else witnessed the signature and if the document is filed and is false it increases the severity of the offense. Some documents to be filed must be notarized.
You have to disprove that you signed it but otherwise it gets no special treatment as to fraud.
Yes, you can download a Blumberg legal form for sub-leasing at this web address:
http://www.tregny.com/pdf/coop_sub_lease.pdf
well… if they are not interested in helping then there’s not much you can do. I meant that you have the tenant fill out an application, do a credit check, etc.through the owner so that they are invested in the tenant.. How did you get the apartment in the first place?
Subleasing is a favor for you, it’s designed to be used as a temporary situation for a place you want to return to… so that you have a home even if the situation changes. If you don’t want it anymore, it’s best to get out of the lease if you can.
I know it can be difficult and youre definitely got down to the wire.
If you can find a subletter, you should be able to find someone to take over your apartment. You can let me know what it is you’re trying to rent out and maybe I can help. Send me the details to snezanc@gmail.com. Lots of people contact me every day.
anyhow, best of luck and hope this helps… also i will email you a sublease agreement for free if you end up going that route.