If you are a landlord or property management with several rental properties at some point, a tenant may ask you if they can sublet their apartment or may do so without asking. There may be several reasons why your tenant wants to sublet their apartment. They may be college students away for the summer or need to move early for a job, or maybe your tenant has an extra room and is looking for extra money to help pay rent. Either way subletting all or part of a rental unit comes with extra risk for a landlord and therefore subletting rules should be included in every lease and well published to tenants. Below are several subletting topics.
Makes Policies Clear: Not all landlords or property managers allow for subletting apartments. If you do allow for subletting you may require the subletter to sign an agreement with you before they can move in. Make sure all policies are clear to your renter when they sign the lease, so there is no confusion in the future if your tenant wants to add a subletter.
Rent Responsibility Provision: When a subletter is taken on by a tenant whether they are paying for the whole unit or part of the unit make sure it is clearly stated that the tenant is responsible if the subletter does not pay rent on time. This will add a layer of security to the landlord and one less person to chase after if rent is not paid on time
Liability for Damage: Make sure it is clear in the subletting policies who is responsible for any damage to the unit. In some cases, it may be more beneficial to have multiple people held responsible for liability for damages as it may be easier to collect a larger sum of money if there is damage to your rental unit.
If you do not require your tenants to have their subletters sign an agreement, you may want to make sure your tenants understand that by default they are responsible for all rent and any additional cost incurred including damage to the property. In subletting scenarios, an organized rental property system becomes extremely important so that you can keep track of payments, damage and leasing agreements of multiple individuals within the same unit.
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Disclaimer: The information provided in this post not intended to be construed as legal advice, nor should it be considered a substitute for obtaining individual legal counsel or consulting your local, state, federal or provincial tenancy laws.