Adding a Name to an Apartment Lease in New York
My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: New York.
My son, we'll call him John, is subletting illegally from a friend, we'll call him Tom. (they're both 23 years-old). The lease, is under Tom's mother who has left the country for Africa, is unreachable and is not planning to come back to New York. The lease is up and needs to be returned by Aug 1. Can Tom add his name on the lease without a note from his mother ? My son wants to be a legal tenant, so can John add his own name to the lease? Could the rental company refuse to have John's name, or can Tom live with whoever he wants and add their name to the lease? They're afraid to make waves and lose the lease. Does anybody knows what can, or should not be done ? Thanks.
Re: Adding a Name to a New York Lease Appartement
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carwesg
My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: New York.
My son, we'll call him John, is subletting illegally from a friend, we'll call him Tom. (they're both 23 years-old). The lease, is under Tom's mother who has left the country for Africa, is unreachable and is not planning to come back to New York. The lease is up and needs to be returned by Aug 1. Can Tom add his name on the lease without a note from his mother ? My son wants to be a legal tenant, so can John add his own name to the lease? Could the rental company refuse to have John's name, or can Tom live with whoever he wants and add their name to the lease? They're afraid to make waves and lose the lease. Does anybody knows what can, or should not be done ? Thanks.
I am a NYC LL, and the way my leases are written up, all new roommates are backgrounded checked and credit checked, and if they don't measure up, they would not be accepted. It wasn't always so, but I learned the hard way this is the only way to do it. I don't know how your lease reads.
I once had a tenant, an Ivy MBA with a nice 6 figure salary doing trading renting from me. He had a student roommate not employed, and since the Ivy MBA made good money, I rented the apt based on his income and credit alone. Some time later this student was replaced by another roommate, which at the time I didn't bother to check out, and rumor had it, he's some kind of drug dealer. Later, I learned I could have my property seized if I let drug dealers operate from my rentals.
After that, the Ivy MBA was downsized out of his job, so he moved away. The drug dealer stayed, and got himself a roommate and I was told to help with the rent. Well, I didn't check this new fella out either. At some point, I was releived that the drug dealer left, but soon found out the remaining roommate is unemployed, and he told me I would have to evict him. And that took me a while.
After all of this, I now insist that all new roommates have to be background and credit checked, particularly with LL's being liable if drug dealers or child molesters moved in, and I know about it. I had a few cases before this where a tenant brings an illegal sublet in, then another, but nothing that led to the disaster that happened with the Ivy MBA tenant.