Sublet etiquette has always been a hot Ask Curbed issue (it comprised our second-ever Ask Curbed query, back in the far-away time of 2005). Today, a query from a reader concerning potential mistreatment at the hands of her landlord. She emails:
A friend of mine needed to break her lease and I agreed to take over the lease. When she contacted her landlord to say she had found someone the landlord/management company said there would be a 12% fee for me to take over the lease.
They then suggested she sublet to me. I agreed and we drew up our own sublet agreement and worked out the money, etc. She again called her landlord/management company to let them know we came to an agreement, they then informed her that we would need to sign a sublease through them and there would be a $200 fee to have it drawn up. The agreement would also state that if at the end of the lease we wanted to take over the apartment there would be a 12% fee for us to resign with them.Your thoughts in the comments, per usual.Is this standard practice (or legal) to charge a 12% fee to take over someone’s lease? Is this standard practice (or legal) to sign a sublease agreement through the management company and have them charge you a fee to draw up the document? My personal feeling is that they are doing this to try to get as much money as possible from us. What are my options here? Can we push back on them for any of this?
· Ask Curbed: Sublet Etiquette [Curbed]
· Ask Curbed: Undocumented Sublet Cluster F [Curbed]