Subletting an apartment

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Thanks CrankyDad. My adult “child” contacted me for advice so that’s why I’m reaching out for information. And I’m nervous because we have never done this before and I am aware that allowing a stranger to live in an apartment that has my name on the lease could end up badly (apartment trashed, squatter, etc). I suppose there’s a reason that leasing companies do a thorough background and credit check on potential renters.

No one here is going to actually be able to give you the appropriate information.

You should be:
1) Reviewing the lease agreement for clauses regarding subleasing. It would be a moot point if subletting wasn't even allowed
2) If subletting is allowed it should spell out the requirements and if not contact who is in charge of the apartments

Once you have that information then you can provide that to posters who could give their opinions on either pros and cons, past experience, etc.

Subletting isn't a foreign concept, it is done all the time (speaking towards concerns), and if it's allowed where your son lives they should be able to give you all the information you need on the process.

 

[tvguy]

I never came home after the first summer because starting sophomore year everyone was required to rent housing (only freshman could live in dorms). My husband was able to graduate a semester early by doing summer sessions every year.

Wow, that's different than my experience and my kids experience
My college and my sons required Freshman and Sophmores to live in campus housing, and guaranteed dorm space to all full time students.
My daughter's college did not require students to live on campus, but also guaranteed dorm space to all full time students.

 

[DLgal]

Wow, that's different than my experience and my kids experience
My college and my sons required Freshman and Sophmores to live in campus housing, and guaranteed dorm space to all full time students.
My daughter's college did not require students to live on campus, but also guaranteed dorm space to all full time students.

This was at at University of California campus back in 1996. Pretty sure it is still like that there.

 

[tvguy]

This was at at University of California campus back in 1996. Pretty sure it is still like that there.

I guess it depends on the UC campus. Most of my kids friends that went to UC Davis lived in the dorms all 4 years.

 

[Albort]

it is a matter of trusting whoever moves in. I had a friend who subleased a room within UCLA's network. The guy had an internship somewhere in SD for 6 month, he was stuck on a year lease. it worked out for both of them.
The one thing that sucks for my friend was that he accidently locked himself out once and had to wait a day for the other roommate to come back from camping... :\ haha. def YMMV.

reading the contract would be the first step though.

 

[WDWJDS]

Thanks everyone for all of that information. I’m glad to hear that I’m not the only one that feels hesitant about subletting.

We have decided to just eat the cost and use it as a vacation spot over the summer, since it’s near the beach!

 

[DLgal]

I guess it depends on the UC campus. Most of my kids friends that went to UC Davis lived in the dorms all 4 years.

LOL...that's where I went. No such luck for us! We had to roommate up and rent apartments in town.

 

[tvguy]

LOL...that's where I went. No such luck for us! We had to roommate up and rent apartments in town.

Davis is a strange real estate town. My nephew was campus minister for like 3 years, he bought a condo. When he left it took him five YEARS to sell it. He had not trouble, or course renting it, but he didn't want to be a landlord.

 

[scrapquitler]

Does anyone have any experience with their college student subletting their apartment over the summer?

The space is 1BD/BR in a 4BD/BR off campus apartment. Once potential renters are chosen, what do you do? Background check, references, does it need to be run thru the apartment complex or do people do just a gentleman’s agreement of some sort? I am completely clueless.

I’m really nervous about renting my child’s room to a stranger and could use any information that you can give. Thanks in advance!

Your child should read his/her lease very carefully and see if he is allowed to sublet it. Every apartment I ever rented the lease specifically said that I was not allowed to sublet. If it IS allowed, your child needs to let his landlord know.

 

[barkley]

Davis is a strange real estate town. My nephew was campus minister for like 3 years, he bought a condo. When he left it took him five YEARS to sell it. He had not trouble, or course renting it, but he didn't want to be a landlord.

no one in their right mind wants to buy there b/c it's the land of permits. you can't do much of anything to a home including simple repairs w/o forking over money to the city of davis (if you so much as remove a single cabinet from a kitchen it's deemed a 'remodel' and requires a laundry list of electrical and other items be permitted, done and inspected). to complete the sale of a home requires a full resale inspection done by the city at which point they will nitpick every aspect of a home, research to see when certain repairs or upgrades were done-and if they weren't done w/the proper permits then the owner won't be permitted to sell until everything is done and permitted to the city's satisfaction.

we lived nearby and made the mistake of going into a chain store there to buy a dishwasher-they required a permit from the city before they could sell to us until they saw from our i.d.'s that we didn't live in davis.

 

[cabanafrau]

My daughter needed an apartment for the fall semester only when finishing grad school. The apartment she loved and had been living in for two years was raising the rent over $200 a month and they did not allow subletting. When she moved she selected a complex that did allow sublets and told her it was commonplace there and they hadn't had tenants unable to find a subletter. I was skeptical and assumed they were overselling.

I have no idea how she went about it, but she put the sublet offer out by October and not much time went by and she had an offer -- for the summer only. She took it because something was better than nothing & summer was what she was expecting to be stuck with. In November she got someone who wanted the winter/spring semester only. Neither of these people even viewed the apartment. In late November she met with the person moving in in January at the management office. He had started to get cold feet and had been emailing her, asking if the apartment was fairly clean. She assured him it would be empty and clean, and that she would bring photos to the meeting. Apparently he didn't bother to look at them when they met after seeing and talking to her. Management took all of his info. and told my daughter the lease that was technically being turned over to this subletter was now officially ending in early May, which is all he wanted. It turns out the summer subletter is the person who is leasing the apartment for the next year, so they are expanding the time limit on that lease to include summer before as well.

 

[nkereina]

I agree that a full review of the lease is in order. My first step would be to see what the termination clause in the lease is. If the OP's son or daughter can get out of their lease with a one month penalty (or something like that), I would opt for the penalty before I would hassle with subletting. If the termination penalties are too steep, the next course of action would be to see if subletting is even permitted. I agree that it often is not. And if that's the case, I would just have the son or daughter explain the situation to the landlord and see if they can come to some kind of agreement. Perhaps they can split the difference - pay one month's rent or forfeit the security deposit instead of having to pay the last 2 months rent, for example. Unless the landlord is a jerk or they have had a contentious relationship, it should be easy to work something out - its only 2 months.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

We just paid the 2 months rent. It wasn't expensive for us since it was bascially one bedroom and a small portion of the common area.

Nowadays he just stays there for the summer and comes home to visit once in a while. Although this year he'll be moving to a new place so we'll need to figure out the logistics of that since there will be a 2 week leeway between this lease and the new one.

 

[runwad]

Ugh this has me thinking about my current sophomore DD who will be in an apartment for her Jr & Sr year. The lease goes Aug to Aug no subletting.

When she graduates it's the beginning of May so that will be almost 4 mos of rent when she's maybe not there...or maybe she'll get a job there and will? But still 4 mos, yuck, never thought of that before