Wednesday, November 16, 2011

SNAGMYLEASE.com

In real estate law, sublease (or, less formally, sublet) is the name given to an arrangement in which the lessee in a lease assigns the lease to a third party, thereby making the old lessee the sublessor, and the new lessee the sublessee, or subtenant. This means they are renting the property and renting it out at the same time. For example, the owner of an office building may lease the whole building to a management company. This company may then sublease parts of the building to other people. The management company is said to sublet the property to the individual tenants by means of a sublease. In this event, the management company (which was previously the lessee under the original lease) becomes the sublessor, and the individual tenants are subtenants or sublessees.
The sublessor remains liable to the original lessor for any damage to the property and for payment of rent. Often the original lessee requires a lower rent payment from the sublessee than what he or she may have originally paid, leaving a partial amount of the rent left up to the original lessee.
It is sometimes illegal to charge the subtenant more than the original amount in the sublessee's contract (for instance, in a rent control situation where the rental amount is controlled by law). Subletting of social housing is generally illegal, whatever the rent charged to the subtenant; in the UK it is officially described as a category of housing fraud.

A sublease can also apply to vehicles as an alternate type of car rental. In a vehicle sublease, a lessee or vehicle owner can assign a lease to a third party and by way of contractual agreement for specific dates. Although this arrangement is not popular, it is a growing trend in the travel industry as a less expensive alternative for travelers and locals.