Fall Semester Abroad: Sublet Your NYC Room August to December

What the Fall Costs If the Room Is Empty

Fall abroad usually means September, October, November and December. $1,850 a month for four months is $7,400. If you leave in mid-August and your rent is paid by the month, August is a fifth payment for a room you use for two weeks.

Sublet at $1,700 for the four full months and you cover $6,800. You pay the remaining $600.

The August Lease-Start Crunch

Late summer is the most expensive stretch of the New York rental year. In StreetEasy’s data, asking rents in August usually run about 3% above the yearly average.

That cuts two ways for you. Many leases turn over then, so people are looking. But you may also be signing or renewing your own lease, moving in, and leaving the country in the same few weeks.

If you are signing a new lease that starts in August or September and you already know you will be abroad, raise it before you sign. Ask the landlord, in writing, whether a sublet for the fall is acceptable. It is much easier to hear a no before you are committed for twelve months.

Line It Up Before Summer Ends

The landlord step sets the pace. In buildings with four or more apartments, Real Property Law 226-b gives the landlord 30 days to answer a written request sent by certified mail, and the request names your subtenant.

1. May or June: read your lease and tell your roommates your dates.
2. June: take photos while you are still living there and the room looks like a room.
3. By early July: list with exact dates.
4. July: choose someone, write the sublease, send your landlord the formal request.
5. Early August: get the answer in writing, then sort mail, bills and keys.

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.

• When to List Your Sublet
• How to Ask Your Landlord to Sublet

If You Are Away for the Summer Too

Plenty of students leave in May and do not come back until January. Then you have two sublets back to back: a summer one and a fall one, or one long stay from June to December.

One long stay is simpler: one person, one approval, one handover. June to December is seven months, and at $1,850 that is $12,950 at stake. If you do two, your local contact does the August changeover, and each subtenant needs the landlord’s approval.

• Sublet Your Apartment for the Summer

Who Is Looking for Fall

• Students who are arriving for the fall term and have not found a lease.
• Fall interns and students on a co-op, a work placement that replaces a term of classes.
• People new to the city who want a few months before committing to a year.
• Students back from a spring or summer away who need one semester of housing.

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.

• Fall Sublets

Plan the December End

Fall terms end before the holidays, but you may not be back until mid-January. Decide now. You can end the sublet when the term ends and leave the room empty for a few weeks, or offer the stay through your return date.

Running it to mid-January covers about two more weeks. At $1,700 a month, half a month is $850. Some subtenants want that; many leave when their term ends. Put the exact end date in the sublease either way.

• Winter Break Sublets