Lease says no sublet, but I'm told it's legal

[RiverStyx]

I've been in a rent stabilized apt. for 13 yrs. now. The lease has always stated no sublets... but I'm told that if my job transfers me out of state I'm allowed to sublet for up to two years provided the landlord approves the new tenant via credit check etc. Is this true?

RiverStyx

[goldbourbon]

This is true and the reason I know this is because I am currently subletting my rent-stabilized apartment in NYC to someone. At the time that I was requesting my sublet I was also involved in a landlord-tenant rental dispute with my landlord so if the landlord had the legal right to disprove my request for sublet he definitely would have but my sublettor met all credit checks so he had to approve. (By the way, I won the dispute

This applies to only rent-stabilized apartments.

<small>[ March 22, 2003, 11:32 PM: Message edited by: TenantNet ]</small>

[TenantNet]

The NYS Real Property Law allows tenants to sublet if certain procedures are followed. Many do without the procedures, but take a risk. Even those that follow the procedures sometimes are at risk of being taken to court. The thing to remember is that the tenant must be able to demonstrate an intent to return. Otherwise it could be construed as a non-primary residence situation. See http://www.tenant.net/Tengroup/Metcounc/Mar96/sublet.html

[consigliere]

The right to sublet applies to any building in New York State with four or more residential units -- Real Property Law §226-b -- not just to rent stabilized apartments.
 

[goldbourbon]

Well, actually I had a link listed that applied ONLY to rent-stabilized apartments but tenant.net edited my response and deleted my link.