3 Reasons Your Landlord Might Not Allow Subletting

3 Reasons Your Landlord Might Not Allow Subletting pexels.com Financial Loss Even if you sublet your apartment and go through the proper channels with the property’s rules and regulations, there is still a chance that whoever you find to sublet your apartment will not pay. The pool of potential subtenants is small and it can be difficult to find someone you actually know to sublet a room or apartment. That means you are entrusting your space to a complete stranger. You might find them trustworthy and want to take their word, but even friends can go back on what they say. If you are not there at the property, how can you guarantee that they will pay? What if they pay late and your property managers charge you a late fee? Who pays it, you or the subtenant? The subtenant should be the one to pay but they might not and then you will be stuck with the fees. If you do not monitor the situation closely, the landlord might end up evicting your subtenant, and in essence, you. Then they will have to file an eviction lawsuit against you in order to recuperate the funds they have lost because of this interloper who never paid rent. And you will often be the one sued, not the subtenant. The point of renting the property out is to make money off of it and so whether the subtenant pays or not, the landlord will get their due. The rent must be paid. This is why your landlord can be hesitant to allow subletting, and really, can you blame them? Fraudulent Identity If you do not go through the official channels to sublet your property and just accept someone to live in your space in your stead while you are away, the landlord has no idea who is living in their space. The person living in the space ends up not going through a background check or leaving a paper trail as to their whereabouts. This is pretty sketchy and frowned upon by most property owners. Doing background checks and screening people before allowing them to live in a property is important, especially as most subtenants are strangers even to the tenants. Landlords need to know who is staying in the property in order to protect it and other tenants properly. What if this person has a record of being evicted or has been unable to hold down a job? It is the property owner’s right to know that information. Even beyond economic means, there are other reasons why landlords need to know about the people living in their properties. What if a subtenant is actually a sexual offender? Sexual offenders often have regulations in place about where they live. If they are able to move into a location without being screened, they could be living in a place where they are breaking the law. More than breaking the law, it could be putting the safety of the other people who live on or in the property at risk. The landlord themselves could get in trouble for this and it could severely damage their business. It is just another reason why many landlords do not approve of subletting. pexels.com Property Damage Especially when a subtenant has not been screened by the property owners, there is a higher chance of property damage. The lease is not under their name, so it may very well not matter to them. An unofficial subtenant might not know the rules of the property in order to report a problem and might let a problem wait until it gets so big it has become a disaster. If the landlord does not require renters to get renters insurance, they could be plumb out of luck if there is any damage. And who should pay for the damage? The subtenant or the actual tenant whose name is on the lease? What if the subtenant does not have renters insurance? It brings up myriad questions that are hard to answer. The longer it takes to repair the damage, the longer a landlord must wait to put a new person into the space in order to make back the money they have lost. Even if a landlord does not have to pay themselves to repair the property, they lose money simply by not having a tenant in the space.