Subletting in Washington, DC: A Guide for Students and Interns

Who Sublets in Washington, DC, and When

The main universities are Georgetown University, George Washington University, American University and Howard University. Students on 12-month leases head home or abroad in May and need someone through the summer.

Interns fill the other side. Congressional offices, agencies, think tanks, law firms and news bureaus take interns every summer, and many also take them for a fall or spring semester. Students who spend a semester interning in DC through their home school look for furnished rooms for about four months.

Where Students and Interns Live

• Near George Washington: Foggy Bottom and the West End, at the Foggy Bottom-GWU station on Metro’s Blue, Orange and Silver Lines, a short walk from the National Mall.
• Near Georgetown: Georgetown, Burleith and Glover Park, along Wisconsin Avenue and the Potomac. There is no Metro station in Georgetown, so people use Metrobus, the university shuttle or the walk to Foggy Bottom or Rosslyn.
• Near American: Tenleytown and the blocks along Massachusetts and Nebraska Avenues, with the Tenleytown-AU station on the Red Line.
• Near Howard: Shaw, LeDroit Park and the U Street corridor, at Shaw-Howard U and U Street on the Green Line.
• Near the offices: Capitol Hill (Capitol South, Eastern Market and Union Station), Dupont Circle and Farragut Square downtown (Red, Blue, Orange and Silver Lines), and Navy Yard (Green Line).
• Across the Potomac in Virginia: Rosslyn, Courthouse and Clarendon on the Orange and Silver Lines. Virginia has its own landlord and tenant law, so check there if you rent in Arlington.

Getting Around Without a Car

You can live here without a car. The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) runs Metrorail, with six color-named lines, and Metrobus. Rail fares vary by distance, so a longer ride costs more. Much of the central city is walkable, and the Mall, Rock Creek Park and the riverfront trails are good for biking.

The Rules to Check Before You Sublet in Washington, DC

Read your lease first. We could not confirm a District rule that gives every tenant a right to sublet, so the lease and your landlord’s written consent are what decide. The DC Office of the Tenant Advocate is the District’s agency for tenant questions, and it notes that a 2016 law clarified some lease terms, including subletting restrictions. Ask them if your lease is unclear.

Short stays are a separate category. The DC Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection says a short-term rental is limited to 30 or fewer continuous nights, needs a Short-Term or Vacation Rental License, and must be in a home that serves as the homeowner’s primary residence. That license is built for owners, so a renter should not treat a short stay as a sublet.

If you live in a university-owned apartment, ask the housing office about its own policy.

How to Sublet Your Place in Washington, DC

1. Read your lease for a sublet clause. If it requires consent, ask before you advertise, and call the Office of the Tenant Advocate if the wording is unclear.
2. Ask your landlord in writing, and get the approval in writing before you list. An email that names the subtenant and the dates is far better than a phone call.
3. Talk to your roommates. If they are on the lease, the lease may need their written agreement too.
4. Set exact move-in and move-out dates that sit inside your own lease term.
5. Price it near your own rent. As an example of the math, not a local price: if you pay $1,000 a month and leave for 3 months, an empty room costs you $3,000.
6. Put it in writing: names, dates, rent, what is included, how the deposit is handled and the house rules. Both of you sign and keep a copy.

Choose a subtenant on the stay only: dates, ability to pay, references, pets, smoking. Fair housing laws make it illegal to choose or refuse someone because of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability or family status, and many states and cities add gender identity, sexual orientation, age, lawful source of income and more.

• How to Handle Your Sublet, Start to Finish
• Going Abroad: The Apartment Checklist

How to Find a Sublet in Washington, DC Without Getting Scammed

Sublet Buddy lists sublets of 30 days or longer. Its listings are live in New York City today, and Washington, DC is on the way.

• See the place in person, or on a live video call where the person walks from the street door to the room.
• Ask to see the page of the lease with their name on it, and the landlord’s written approval of the sublet.
• Never pay a deposit or rent before you have a signed agreement. Be wary of anyone who wants a wire transfer, gift cards or crypto.
• Be wary of pressure. “Three other people want it today” is a reason to slow down, not to pay.

• Sublet Scam Warning Signs (Written for New York, but the Warning Signs Are the Same)
• Washington, DC on Sublet Buddy