NYC Sublease Agreements: Do You Need One and How to Find One

Introduction

TL;DR: You have to use one. If you’re in a rush, use this one.

Definition: A sublease agreement is a legal contract that outlines all the terms and responsibilities between the master tenant and the subtenant.

Do I really need to use a sublease agreement?

Yes. The whole idea is that if anything goes wrong, and you need something from the other party but they're refusing, you'll be able to point to this document and make them do it anyway. If you don't use a sublease agreement, there is nothing binding you nor the other party to following the rules that you initially might have established verbally - so anyone will be able to break the rules, and not suffer any consequences as a result. Remember that sublets are already a very gray area, and that you're going to need to give this stranger that you found on the internet thousands of dollars in the form of a security deposit.

1. Do not go through with any sublet/sublease if the lister refuses to use a written agreement.
2. Do not send any money to any lister without an agreement signed.
3. Do not sign a sublease agreement you don’t understand.

Where do I find a sublease agreement to use?

You can use this basic template from eForms, or this free one from Atlas, which is slightly more comprehensive and customizable. Both forms will allow you to outline the most important aspects of a sublease: a payment schedule (including the security deposit), sublease length, late fees, etc.

What should I make sure is on my sublease agreement?

We recommend first starting off with one of the sublease agreements above. Then:

1. Use similar language from the original lease in the sublease agreement. So if the lease says no smoking, the sublet agreement should say no smoking. If the lease says no pets, the agreement should say no pets, etc.

2. Outline as many of the most likely edge cases as you can. Remember that the whole reason we want to use a sublease agreement is so that when shit hits the fan, you know exactly what to do. Unfortunately, scenarios where shit hits the fan are really hard to imagine and plan ahead of time for, and are generally a big pain to even think about in the first place. However, you can still try to guess what might become a problem depending on your specific circumstances.

   For example, if you’re planning to sublet a place in NYC for the summer, what happens if the window AC stops working? If the master tenant is going to be away in a place with no service, who can you contact if you can’t reach them for whatever reason?

   Think about the circumstances that are specific to the sublet, and determine all of the things that could go wrong, and what the rules should be if they do. Then, put all of that in your sublease agreement. The Atlas agreement has a section for additional terms that you can use for this purpose.