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A roommate's right to sublet

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A roommate's right to sublet

Postby vidro3 » Fri Aug 06, 2010 1:54 pm

I've been in my 3br apt for 3 years. I don't have a lease since I rent from a family member.

I also don't have any written agreement with my two roommates. This has not been a problem until now.

Now, one roommate informed me she would be going on vacation from Sept. 1-10, and is subletting/renting her room to someone while she is away.

Is that permissible?


thanks for the help
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Postby TenantNet » Fri Aug 06, 2010 2:06 pm

Let's first deal with terminology. Assuming you mean the family member is acting as a landlord and you are the prime tenant. Without a lease you would be a month-to-month tenant.

A roommate can be in the generic sense anyone who shares the unit. But in the legal sense, you are the prime tenant and the person you have allowed to stay there is the roommate (or occupant or licensee).

If you are the prime tenant, you can take on roommates and you may sublet in accordance with the NYS Real Property Law on roommates.

Subletting is when the prime tenant goes away for a defined period of time, and it expected to return.

A roommate (licensee) does not have standing to sublet. (and ten days really isn't a sublet anyway).

It also depends on how the apartment is set up. If it's like a rooming house that's one thing, but if it's like a regular apartment, that's something else.

Often when tenants go on vacation, they ask someone to house sit, water plants, get the mail, feed and walk the dog and so on. That's not subletting. But that is less common where there are people (generic roommates) still there.
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Postby vidro3 » Fri Aug 06, 2010 2:19 pm

my sense is that she wants to charge someone a fee to stay in her room while she is away - not just come by to water plants, etc.

But either way, she has no right/standing/authority to allow someone else to stay there, correct?

Thanks for the quick reply.
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Postby TenantNet » Fri Aug 06, 2010 2:28 pm

If you are the prime tenant, you are, in effect, acting as a landlord to your licensees (roommates). You have given them permission to reside there until such time as you revoke permission or they leave. You did not give them permission to "sublet" the place.

If it's only for ten days, I'd tell them no, but offer to water plants or whatever. Make it go away.
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Postby vidro3 » Fri Aug 06, 2010 2:30 pm

thanks again.
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Postby chinatown blues » Sun Apr 24, 2011 7:18 pm

If the licensee has a written agreement with the primary tenant to stay until a certain amount of time? Isn't that as if the primary tenant is then the landlord?

I am in a situation in which the primary tenant has deliberately made my life miserable - I would like to flee the place within a few days to protect my mental health, wouldn't I then have the right to at least put someone in my place so that I can recover my rent money? He wants to object to this arrangement on principle, without even knowing who I would want to sublet to. Yet he has caused the unbearable situation. Am I really the one who has to bear the financial loss?
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Postby TenantNet » Sun Apr 24, 2011 8:27 pm

It might be easier for readers if you put all your posts in one thread rather than scattered all about, especially in threads that are very old like this one.
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Postby chinatown blues » Mon Apr 25, 2011 12:10 pm

This thread seemed to be dealing with the question I wanted to ask about the right to sublet, and I was just asking a variation on the same question. Why wouldn't it be a good idea to post here, since it explores the original poster's question from a slightly different angle?

I still want to know: if I put someone in my room, can the primary tenant unreasonably refuse?
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