Setting Up Rules For Your Subtenant: Things To Consider

By Danielle Wirsansky on September 30, 2016

We go home for the summer, we travel abroad, we graduate early — whatever the reason, sometimes as students, we are not going to be staying in our apartment for the entire length of the lease. Not living in the apartment and still paying rent, however, can be a huge drain on your finances, especially if you have to pay to stay in a secondary location while you are gone.

What is the best solution? Find a subtenant to take over the lease while you are gone if you can. They will be paying your rent instead, allowing you to fully enjoy your adventures without worrying as much about money matters.

But when you sublease your apartment and allow a subtenant to occupy your space for a while, it seems likely that you will want to set some ground rules for the person so that you can feel confident leaving them behind in your apartment. This is especially true if you plan to return to living in your apartment.

Read on to make sure you really consider every aspect of your transition before you allow someone to set up camp in your home.

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Your Return

The first thing you should consider is if you will be returning to live in your apartment. Sometimes you need to leave for a semester to study abroad or do an internship where you will be returning directly after that and you only need a subtenant for a semester.

Do you know when you are returning? Does your subtenant know when you are returning as well so that they can plan accordingly and find another place to live? Are you going to leave all of your furniture behind so that the room is furnished? If any utility bills are in your name, do you need to transfer them to your subtenant or close out your own and have them start their own? These are all questions you should probably consider so that there is no tangle with the transfer.

And if you are returning, you have to think about what would make you uncomfortable for a subtenant to do in your space and what rules you need to put in place and make sure are upheld so that you can leave without worrying the entire time you are gone.

What Belongings Stay

Regardless of your return or not, you need to decide what belongings of yours will stay in the apartment even when you are gone. Will you leave anything behind? Or will you take every scrap of furniture and every item that directly belongs to you? This is a big question both ways.

If you are returning to the apartment, it does not make sense to schlep and move every single piece of furniture and all of your belongings home and then back to the apartment. That is a whole lot of work! But you should also consider if where you are moving to for the semester will have any furniture and what you might need to provide for yourself at the new place so that you do not end up buying doubles of things that you already have.

And if you are leaving in winter, do you really need to bring your whole summer wardrobe with you or vice versa? Is there a way that you can keep your belongings in the apartment while minimizing your presence because the subtenant deserves a place to keep their own belongings too. You can’t just leave all your stuff as it is with clothes in the closet, toiletries in the bathroom, and more. You have to be considerate of the subtenant who is paying to live there. You want them to pay to live there, right? Then conditions need to be livable. Some of your stuff can stay, sure, but in a discrete way that will not intrude your presence too much upon the subtenant.

If you are not returning to your apartment, then you must decide if you want or need to leave the furniture behind. If you are taking it with you, your subtenant needs to be informed that the apartment has no couch or bed and that they will need to provide it. Same with other staples like dishes and pots and pans. You need to be considerate and give your subtenant notice of these things because they might be deal breakers and your subtenant could refuse to move in or pay which is a whole lot of stress which defeats the whole purpose of finding a subtenant to begin with.

It also means you cannot just leave your belongings behind willy nilly. Have a lot of clothes or books or other things that you do not really want anymore? You cannot just leave them behind for the subtenant to deal with. You need to donate them or sell them so that they are out of the space because pretty soon, it will not be yours anymore.

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Consider these things as you search for your subtenant so that you can have the best experience possible while subletting!

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