Co-Op Semester Housing: How to Handle a Six-Month Gap

What a Co-Op Does to Your Housing

A co-op is a full-time work placement that replaces a term of classes. Schools set their own calendars. Northeastern’s College of Social Sciences and Humanities says its two co-op cycles run January to June or July to December. Drexel says students are generally on co-op for a six-month period, alternating with six months of classroom study.

Check your own school’s co-op office for your dates. They are the only source that counts.

Six months is the awkward length. It is too long to leave a room empty, and half of a standard twelve-month lease. At $1,850 a month, six months is $11,100.

Your Co-Op Is in Another City

You have a lease near campus and a job somewhere else. In order:

1. Read your lease for the sublet clause and the end date.
2. Ask your landlord, in writing, whether you can sublet for your co-op dates.
3. List your room for the exact six months.
4. Search for a sublet in the city where you will work, for the same dates.
5. Line up the two so you are not paying both rents for more than a few days.

Get your landlord’s written approval before anyone moves in. An email that says yes is good. A text or a verbal okay is hard to prove later.

If Your Lease Is in New York

In buildings with four or more apartments, New York Real Property Law 226-b gives tenants the right to ask to sublet. The request goes by certified mail with the dates, the subtenant’s name and a copy of the sublease, and the landlord has 30 days to answer. Consent may not be unreasonably withheld.

If your apartment is rent-stabilized, you generally may not charge more than your legal rent, plus up to 10% if it is furnished, and you may not sublet for more than two years in any four-year period.

• How to Sublet in NYC
• Subletting a Rent-Stabilized Apartment

If Your Lease Is Somewhere Else

Boston, Philadelphia and every other city have their own rules, and many leases outside New York simply require the landlord’s written consent with no right to insist. Read your lease, ask your landlord, and check your university’s off-campus housing office for what applies locally.

The steps are the same anywhere: written permission, exact dates, a written agreement with the person taking your room.

• Sublet Guide: Boston
• Sublet Guide: Philadelphia

You Are Coming to New York for a Co-Op

Your employer gives you a start and end date. Search for a furnished sublet that covers them, and expect to arrange it from a distance.

Students who leave New York for a spring semester abroad list rooms from January. Students leaving for a fall away list from late August. A January to June co-op overlaps the first group and then needs one more month, so ask early whether the person can extend, or plan a second short stay.

Sublet Buddy lists sublets of 30 days or longer in New York City, and you message the person on the site. See the place on a live video call before you agree to anything.

• Find a Place
• All NYC Sublets
• How to Avoid Sublet Scams

Plan the Gap Before You Sign a Lease

If you know a co-op is coming in the next year, bring it up before you sign. Three questions help.

• Will the landlord agree, in writing, to a sublet for my co-op term.
• Do my roommates have co-ops at different times, and can we cover each other’s rooms.
• Would a shorter lease, or a sublet of my own for the class term, fit better than twelve months.

When you choose a subtenant, ask only about the stay: dates, ability to pay, references, pets, smoking and schedule. In New York City it is illegal to choose or refuse someone because of race, color, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, citizenship status, disability, family status, marital status, age, lawful source of income or another protected trait.