7 Tips for Safe Subletting

Get the New Tenant to Sign an Agreement

If you own your property or choose to sublet without notifying your landlord, the most important thing to do is make sure the person subletting from you signs an agreement stating that they will pay rent by a certain time each month, will be responsible for any damages and agree to rules for what they’re permitted to do in the space.

According to Jamie Clymer, the president of Rentals.com, you should “use an attorney to draft the lease agreement and review the terms of the lease with the tenant.”

Do a Credit Check

Whether it’s you or your landlord handling the sublet situation, the new tenant will have to go through a credit check. So, according to Clymer, you’ll have to ask the tenant for permission to do a background and credit check. Just like a normal landlord would, you'll want to look out for a low credit score (usually anything below 620) as well as for any loans that may still be outstanding.

Keep Tabs on Your New Tenant

If you have found a person to take over your lease with the landlord’s permission, then you are no longer responsible for what happens to the property. However, if you are bringing on extra residents, subletting out your place temporarily or subleasing without the landlord’s permission, you’ll definitely want to keep close tabs on the place to ensure that the new tenant does no damage. And if there is a problem, better to know about it sooner than later. Let’s say your tenant accidentally shoots a hole in the roof when he’s cleaning his shotgun. If that small hole goes unchecked, what might have been a minor patch job can turn into serious water damage after the first big rain storm. Or you know, other bad stuff could happen too.

“If you don’t know the tenant, I’d be wanting to make sure that all is well with the physical property on a very frequent basis, probably every few weeks,” Greenblatt said. Similarly, Clymer recommends that you “keep detailed records of when the rent is paid,” and make sure that it is never late.