When you draft a lease as a landlord, it’s important that you clearly dictate your expectations for the tenant. That way, there will hopefully not be any confusion when it comes to the agreement. As a landlord, you hope that your tenant will follow the lease perfectly, but that is not always the case. There are different ways that a tenant can break a lease, which includes not paying rent on time, having too many roommates, or not maintaining the property.
One of the other ways that a tenant can break a lease is by subletting their apartment without your approval. When this happens, there are certain legal actions that you can take, but first you should be confident that this is taking place. You can do so by interviewing the person in the apartment, as well as the original tenant. If you determine that this person is indeed subletting the property, you should contact the original tenant.
When you speak with them, you should notify them that the lease prohibits subleasing, meaning that they are not following the rules of the lease. Make sure to notify them in writing as well, to ensure you have proof of the situation at hand. In writing, you should indicate what will happen if they do not resolve the issue, and how much time they have to do so.
From there, hopefully the situation will be fixed; if it’s not, you will have to take legal action. You can do so with the help of housing lawyers in NYC. The housing lawyer in NYC will help you to know more about your rights as a landlord, according to your leasing agreement. For instance, you may be able to evict the subletting tenant, but it depends on the situation and specific state laws. If your lease did not specifically prohibit subletting, the situation may be more difficult. If this is the case, you and your New York real estate attorney can update your lease agreement and send a notice to the tenant, in which they will have 30 days before the new lease can be legally put into action.
If your tenant is subletting your property and you don’t want it to continue happening, make sure to have a New York real estate attorney help you resolve the situation.
