Sublet your place. Without breaking
your own lease.
A sublease rents your home to a subtenant for part of your term. This one settles the two things that make that safe — whether your landlord has consented, and the fact that your subtenant is bound by the same master lease you are.
- Attorney-drafted
- Master lease incorporated
- ESIGN & UETA valid
How it works
From answers to a signed sublease — in about two minutes
- 01
Name both sides and the lease
You as sublandlord, the person moving in as subtenant, the premises, and the master lease you hold it under. That last one is what the sublease sits on top of.
- 02
Set the term, rent and consent
Dates that end no later than your own lease, what the subtenant pays you, the deposit and utilities — and whether your landlord has consented in writing.
- 03
E-sign & download
Both sides sign — legally valid under ESIGN/UETA — and you keep a copy alongside the master lease and the consent letter.
Last updated August 19, 2026
Written by LawLease EditorialReviewed by LawLease Legal Team
By arrangement
Subletting, or handing the lease over?
A sublease keeps you on your lease: the subtenant pays you, and you keep paying your landlord. If you want out for good, that is not a sublease — it is an assignment or a new lease, and it takes your landlord's signature to do it properly.
- LA
Lease amendment
Leaving for good? Have the landlord sign the new occupant onto the lease and release you.
Learn more - RR
Room rental agreement
You own the home or hold the lease, live there, and rent one room to someone else.
Learn more - RA
Roommate agreement
Co-tenants who all signed the same lease, dividing rent and chores between themselves.
Learn more - RL
Residential lease agreement
The tenancy itself, between the landlord and everyone renting the home.
Learn more - RA
Rental application
Screen a prospective subtenant before you are relying on them for your rent.
Learn more
What is a sublease agreement?
A sublease is a contract between a tenant and someone taking over their rented home — all of it or one room — for part or all of the time left on the lease. The tenant becomes the “Sublandlord” and the newcomer the “Subtenant”. It creates a second tenancy stacked on the first: your lease with your landlord stays exactly where it is, and the sublease sits underneath it.
That stacking is the whole point, and it is the part people get wrong. Subletting does not take you off your lease. Your landlord can still come to you for the rent, and for damage your subtenant caused. What the sublease gives you is a contract you can enforce against the person actually living there. It is also called:
- Sublet agreement
- Subletting agreement
- Sublease contract
- Subtenant agreement
- Sublet contract
- Room sublease agreement
Leaving for good rather than for a few months? You want the landlord to sign the new occupant on and release you — that takes a lease amendment or a fresh lease. A sublease leaves you in the middle.
Legal considerations
Two clauses decide whether a sublease is worth signing, and both are printed on the face of this one. The first is consent: most residential leases prohibit subletting without the landlord's prior written permission, and many make an unauthorised sublet grounds for terminating the master lease — against the tenant who signed it, which is you. The second is incorporation: a sublandlord cannot grant rights they do not hold, so the subtenant takes the premises subject to every restriction the master lease imposes on you.
The consequence tenants most often miss is that subletting does not move the liability. You remain the tenant your landlord contracted with. If the subtenant stops paying or damages the place, your landlord looks to you — and this document is your recourse against them. That is a reason to write it carefully, not a reason to avoid subletting.
Written consent
is what most leases require before you sublet — the document asks, and words itself either way
You stay liable
to your own landlord for the rent and for what your subtenant does
Never past your term
a sublease ends no later than the master lease, and ends with it
- Read the sublet clause before you list the room
- It is usually headed “Assignment and Subletting”. It will either forbid subletting outright, allow it with the landlord's written consent, or say nothing at all — and in that last case local law decides. Everything else follows from what it says, so start there.
- Get consent in writing, and keep it
- A verbal yes from a leasing agent is worth very little on the day someone wants to rely on it. Ask by email or letter, keep the reply with the sublease, and record in the document that consent was obtained.
- A sublease cannot outlive the master lease
- Your right to the premises ends when your lease does, so the sublease has to end on or before that date. This document says so, and says the sublease terminates if the master lease terminates for any reason — including early.
- Subletting is not the same as assignment
- Subletting keeps you in the middle: you hold the lease and the subtenant answers to you. An assignment transfers your tenancy to someone else and, done properly with the landlord's written release, takes you off it. If you want out permanently, assignment is the document you actually want.
- For the deposit, you are the landlord now
- The deposit your subtenant pays you is commonly subject to the same state rules a landlord faces — how it is held, what may be deducted, and how quickly it must be returned. Record the amount, and handle the return the way your own landlord is required to handle yours.
- Charging more than you pay may not be allowed
- Some leases cap sublet rent at what the tenant pays, and a few cities regulate it directly with penalties for profiteering. Check the lease and the local rules before pricing the room above your own rent.
How to write a sublease agreement
Six steps take a lease you already hold to a signed sublease. Work through them in order — the first one can stop the whole plan, and it is far cheaper to discover that now than after someone has given notice on their old place.
Before anything else. The sublet clause decides whether you may do this at all, and on what conditions.
- Find the assignment and subletting clause, and do what it says
- Ask the landlord in writing, and keep the reply with this agreement
- If consent is refused, stop — an unauthorised sublet can cost you the lease
Free sample sublease agreement
Here's the format before you start. Read it through, then build your own version through the guided form and download it as a PDF.
Sublease Agreement
1. PARTIES AND THE MASTER LEASE. This Sublease Agreement (the “Sublease”) is entered into between (“Sublandlord”) and (“Subtenant”). Sublandlord rents the premises at (the “Premises”) under a lease with dated (the “Master Lease”), and subleases the Premises to Subtenant on the terms below.
2. LANDLORD CONSENT. Most leases prohibit subletting without the landlord’s prior written consent. Where that consent has been obtained, a copy is attached to or kept with this Sublease. Where it has not, this Sublease is contingent on it, and either party may cancel in writing if consent is refused. Subletting without required consent may expose both parties to termination of the Master Lease.
3. TERM. The sublease term begins and ends . The term ends no later than the Master Lease: if the Master Lease terminates for any reason, this Sublease terminates with it.
4. RENT. Subtenant shall pay Sublandlord rent of per month, due on day of each month, in advance. Sublandlord remains responsible for paying rent to the landlord under the Master Lease.
5. SECURITY DEPOSIT. Subtenant has paid Sublandlord a security deposit of , to be held and returned as required by applicable law, less lawful deductions for damage beyond normal wear and tear and unpaid amounts under this Sublease.
Subletting your place?
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