Are you a college student going abroad for a semester but you’re stuck in a year-long lease? Or perhaps you’re a professional who just landed the perfect job — but you have to relocate from your apartment in Austin to New York in the middle of your current lease. Subletting your apartment may be the way to go.
Read on to find out how to sublet an apartment, find an apartment to sublet, and rent a sublet apartment.
What is subletting?
Subletting
Subletting is when someone else, a subletter, takes over your lease for your apartment. For instance, if you signed a twelve-month lease but need to move out after eight months, you may be able to sublet for the remaining four months on your lease. Subletting releases you from financial and legal responsibility for your apartment.
When you sublet to someone, they take over your entire lease for all of the time left on your lease. The new renter will sign a sublet agreement directly with your landlord.
With subletting, you are off the hook for any expenses or damages to your apartment. However, you are still financially responsible for the apartment. Even if your subtenant doesn’t pay you rent or utilities as they are supposed to, if you are subleasing, you still have to pay the landlord.
Subleasing
Subleasing is often confused with subletting, but the two are slightly different.
If you sublease to someone, they sign an agreement with you, the current tenant, not the landlord. The subtenant may only take over part of the lease. For example, if you have six months left on your lease and only want someone to live there for three months, you would sublease, not sublet. Or, if only one room out of a whole house is available, you would sublease, as the new subtenant would only be taking over part of the lease for the whole house.
For more on subleasing, check out this article from Redfin about how to sublease.
To find out more about subletting, continue reading below. You’ll find out how to sublet an apartment…