Managing a Sublet from Abroad: Repairs, Rent and Time Zones

You Are Still the Tenant

A sublet does not move your lease to someone else. New York Real Property Law 226-b says that after a sublet, the original tenant remains liable for the lease. If rent is late or something breaks, your landlord looks to you, wherever you are.

So the goal is simple. Make it easy for your subtenant to sort small things without you, and easy for you to hear about big things fast.

This all assumes the sublet has your landlord’s written approval. If it does not, fix that first.

Choose One Local Contact

Pick one person in New York: a roommate who is staying, a friend, a family member. They hold a spare key, can let in a repair person, and can do a handover if your flights do not line up.

Ask them properly, tell them the dates, and give your subtenant their number. One name is better than three people who each think someone else has it covered.

Write the House Notes Once

One page, shared as a document your subtenant can open on a phone.

• Wi-Fi name and password.
• Trash and recycling days, and where the bins are.
• The super’s or management company’s phone number, and what to call them for.
• How the heat, air conditioner, stove and locks work, including any trick.
• Laundry, packages and buzzer.
• What is shared with roommates and what is not.
• Who to contact, in order: roommate, local contact, you.

Keep Messages in One Place

Use one thread for everything about the apartment. When dates, rent and repairs are spread across texts, email and social apps, nobody can find what was agreed.

Say when you are awake. If you are six hours ahead, a 7 p.m. question in New York reaches you at 1 a.m. Tell your subtenant you answer within a day, and that anything urgent goes to the super and your local contact first.

How to Handle a Repair

Building problems such as heat, plumbing and appliances that came with the apartment go to the landlord. Damage a person caused is between you and your subtenant under your sublease.

1. Emergency (fire, gas smell, flooding): the subtenant calls 911 or the super straight away, then tells you.
2. Everything else: ask for a photo and one line on what happened.
3. You report it to the landlord or super in writing, because you are the tenant they know.
4. Your local contact lets the repair person in if the subtenant cannot be home.
5. Write down the date it was reported and the date it was fixed.

Set Rent Timing with a Buffer

Your rent is due to the landlord on the same day every month. Ask your subtenant to pay you at least three days before that. If your rent is $1,850 and you sublet at $1,700, you still add $150 a month, which over four months is $600.

Keep one month of rent in the account your landlord is paid from. Then a late payment is an annoyance, not a missed rent.

If Your Subtenant Needs to Leave Early

It happens: a job moves, a program ends. Your sublease should say how much notice either side gives. Thirty days in writing is common, but it is whatever you both signed.

Ask for the leave date in writing and re-list the room for the remaining dates the same day. A sublet request to your landlord names the subtenant, so a replacement is a new request and a new approval. Your local contact handles keys and the walk through.

If the problem is unpaid rent or someone who will not leave, do not try to solve it by message from abroad. Read up, and talk to your landlord or a tenant legal clinic.

• Sublet Problems: What to Do
• How to Handle Your Sublet