Subletting or adding a roommate: who is actually liable
A sublease does not transfer your obligations — you stay on the hook to the landlord for everything. A roommate agreement binds the roommates, not the landlord. Both fail in the same place: consent.
Published ·3 min read
Two documents, one recurring misunderstanding. A sublease hands occupancy to someone else but keeps every obligation on you. A roommate agreement settles money and rules between the people living together and has no effect on the landlord at all.
Subletting: what actually changes
| Stays with you | Moves to the subtenant | |
|---|---|---|
| Rent owed to the landlord | ✔ | — |
| Damage caused by the occupant | ✔ (landlord bills you) | you bill them |
| Lease breaches | ✔ | — |
| Right to occupy | — | ✔ (limited by your lease) |
Two hard limits. A sublease cannot outlast the master lease — you cannot grant more than you hold. And nearly every residential lease requires the landlord's written consent before a sublet; subletting anyway is a lease violation the landlord can act on, and the subtenant has no right to be there. Get consent in writing before anyone moves in, not after.
Under 30 days is not a sublease
A short stay is a short-term rental. Most cities license or ban them, many require a registration number in the listing, and almost every lease prohibits them outright. The fines land on the leaseholder. If the plan is a few weeks, the question is not what the sublease says — it is whether the city allows it at all.
Charging more than you pay
In rent-regulated housing, profiteering on a sublet is usually unlawful and can cost the tenancy itself: New York, for example, limits a sublet surcharge on a rent-stabilized unit to 10% and only where the unit is furnished. San Francisco and Los Angeles restrict it too. Charging above your own rent is worth checking locally before you set a number.
You also inherit the landlord's duties toward your subtenant's deposit: most states cap it at one or two months and require an itemized accounting within a fixed deadline after move-out.
Roommate agreements: useful, but not against the landlord
If everyone is on the lease, you are almost certainly jointly and severally liable: the landlord can pursue any one of you for the whole rent. A 50/50 split in a roommate agreement does not change that. What it gives you is a written, enforceable claim against the roommate who did not pay — which is the difference between a small-claims filing and an argument.
If only one person is on the lease, the others are that person's subtenants or lodgers. The leaseholder carries everything, and the occupants usually have tenancy rights against the leaseholder — including the right to a court eviction.
Removing someone is never self-help
Whatever the paperwork says, a person in lawful occupation is removed through the courts. Changing the locks, removing belongings or shutting off utilities is unlawful self-help in almost every state and carries statutory damages, often several times the monthly rent. Where the person is on the lease, only the landlord can act.
Write down the boring parts
Rooms, rent shares, the internal payment day (set it before the landlord's due date), how the deposit was contributed and comes back, guests, quiet hours, cleaning, and how much notice a departing roommate gives. Nothing here is glamorous, and all of it is what people fight about at month eight.
Build the right one
Our sublease agreement includes a landlord consent block, checks the sublet term against your lease, and warns where the rent, the deposit or the length of stay crosses a line. Our roommate agreement sets the shares and rules, and states plainly what it does not do.
→ Sublease agreement · Roommate agreement
Related: security deposit demand letter.