Questions To Ask A Landlord Before Subleasing An Apartment

By Francine Fluetsch on May 21, 2016

Subleasing an apartment can be awesome, especially if you only need the place for a quarter or for the summer while you finish up classes. While you surely trust the student you are subletting from (or maybe you don’t), it might be a good idea to also speak to the landlord who you are essentially leasing from and ask them a few of these questions, just to make sure that your stay will go as smoothly as possible.

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You wouldn’t want to be halfway through your sublease and then realize the landlord wasn’t okay with a subletter living there. The more you know, the more secure you’ll feel.

How long am I allowed to stay?:

This might sound silly, but there can be a lot of mix-up with this. The landlord might be under the impression that you are only staying for a few weeks, when you are actually planning to stay for the whole summer, so you want to check exactly when you can move in to your temporary space and when you have to be out of there so you don’t get any surprises along the way.

One of my friends was subleasing a place over summer, and when he got to the place, there was still a current tenant in the room that was supposed to be his, and since the landlord hadn’t been involved, he couldn’t say anything. You want an outside source knowing when you should be there, so a current tenant can’t screw you over like that. You don’t want to be paying expensive rent to be sleeping on an uncomfortable old couch.

How should rent be paid?:

Honestly, I’d try and set up a system where you can send the rent to the landlord directly, instead of giving it to one of the tenants who you then just have to trust will give it to the landlord. You don’t want to get in trouble for not paying when you actually did. Figure out exactly when rent is due, the method in which they would like to receive it, and how much you are going to be responsible for.

Are utilities included with your short sublease, or are you going to have to contribute? And how much? Money can definitely get awkward, so you already want to know how everything is going to go down before you even set foot in the place. You don’t want to get sucked into a situation where you get stuck paying for more than you were under the impression that you were responsible for.

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Who should I contact in an emergency?:

What if you are the only person home and a fire starts or there is a gas leak? You definitely want to make sure you ask your landlord which numbers you can contact them by, and if it’s a smaller issue, if they would prefer an email from you, a text, or a phone call. The people you are subleasing from should have this information, but you want to get it for yourself as well so you aren’t trapped in a bad situation.

Where can I park?:

Will you, as a temporary tenant, be able to park in a designated spot? Will you have to get a permit from the DMV to park on the street? Where can you park to move your stuff in? These are all questions that might not pop into your head until you pull up to the place and realize that you don’t know what to do with your car. Maybe one of the tenants will let you borrow their parking permit, but it might be good to ask the landlord to confirm that this is okay.

Are pets allowed?:

If you are living there for a short amount of time, you definitely want to make sure that you are following all of the rules. A lot of landlords don’t allow pets, but many tenants break this, so you don’t want to take their word for it that it’s okay to bring a furry friend with you.

Ask the landlord if pets are allowed, and if you have to do anything special like give a security deposit for the pet or something like that. It’s always better to be on the safe side rather than have the landlord come to the place and see you, a guest of sorts, breaking the rules.

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Will there be a walk-through?:

You want to make sure you don’t get blamed for any damage that you didn’t do. Will the landlord do a walk-through with you of the room you are staying in and the shared spaces to see the condition that it is in before you move in and after your short stay? If they don’t offer, I really recommend that you insist on this. A tenant could totally use you as their way out of paying for damages that they themselves did.

Will there be an official lease to sign?:

As with everything, you want to get the terms of your sublease in writing. From the rules to how long your stay is, you want to make sure that the landlord draws up official documents for you to sign and reference to if there is ever a problem during your stay. This is just a precaution, but it is a necessary way of protecting yourself.

These are just a few questions to keep in mind before embarking on your sublease journey. Good luck out there!

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