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Do free months rent transfer in a lease assignment?

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Do free months rent transfer in a lease assignment?

Postby Assignor123 » Sat May 25, 2019 3:01 pm

Hi. I signed a two year least back in August 2018 that runs through July 31, 2020. As agreed upon and stated as a rider in my lease, rent for July 2019 and July 2020 are free.

I'm moving out of state soon and looking for a new tenant to complete a lease assignment to take over my lease starting July 1, 2019.

Will my two free months of rent in July 2019 and July 2020 transfer to the assignee? What generally happens in these cases? I've been in preliminary discussions with my landlord but they are seemingly being obtuse about my question, so I've been trying to conduct more research on my questions before following up with them.
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Re: Do free months rent transfer in a lease assignment?

Postby TenantNet » Sat May 25, 2019 5:41 pm

I'm assuming this is not a rent stab lease as you posted in the General Discussion area. (although like all tenants you should get the rent history from DHCR and see if there's a chance it should be a RS unit).

Why are two months - one in the middle of the lease term - given free rent? That's odd. I've never seen such a benefit in the middle of a lease. Usually incentives are given up front at the beginning.

Has the LL agreed to the assignment? If they did, did they issue any conditions, like reneging on the free rent issue?

Not knowing much about your situation, I would think that an assignment is a continuation of an existing lease and the new tenant just takes it over, with all existing rights and responsibilities. To that end, in our opinion, the two free months should still be honored by the LL. If the new tenant takes over on July 1, then that tenant, and not you, would receive the benefit of both free months. You're gone at the end of June and the free month is for July 2019.
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Re: Do free months rent transfer in a lease assignment?

Postby Assignor123 » Sat May 25, 2019 7:59 pm

Thanks for the info and response, much appreciated!

And I’m not sure why the free rent is in the middle of the lease. The landlord offered 2 free months if I signed a 2 year lease and the rider attached in the lease stated the free months would be the 12th and 24th months.
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Re: Do free months rent transfer in a lease assignment?

Postby BubbaJoe123 » Mon Jun 03, 2019 10:55 am

TenantNet wrote:I'm assuming this is not a rent stab lease as you posted in the General Discussion area. (although like all tenants you should get the rent history from DHCR and see if there's a chance it should be a RS unit).

Why are two months - one in the middle of the lease term - given free rent? That's odd. I've never seen such a benefit in the middle of a lease. Usually incentives are given up front at the beginning.

Has the LL agreed to the assignment? If they did, did they issue any conditions, like reneging on the free rent issue?

Not knowing much about your situation, I would think that an assignment is a continuation of an existing lease and the new tenant just takes it over, with all existing rights and responsibilities. To that end, in our opinion, the two free months should still be honored by the LL. If the new tenant takes over on July 1, then that tenant, and not you, would receive the benefit of both free months. You're gone at the end of June and the free month is for July 2019.


This is a pretty typical structure for "X months free" leases. On a one year lease, it's typically the last month that's free. In this case (a two year lease) they're doing the last month of the first year and the last month of the second year, rather than the last two months of the second year.
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Re: Do free months rent transfer in a lease assignment?

Postby Landlords Boy » Thu Jul 11, 2019 2:12 pm

TenantNet wrote:Has the LL agreed to the assignment? If they did, did they issue any conditions, like reneging on the free rent issue?


Precisely my questions. Tenants almost always have to get LL's written approval beforehand and LL can refuse for any or no reason.
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