<p>My friends and I are college students who have secured an apartment for next year. Our lease starts on June 1st. There are four of us that will be living in the apartment for the school year, but two girls from the group will also be living there over the summer. Additionally, we have found another friend to sub-lease from us, so she will be living in the apartment over the summer but will move out a little before the school year starts.</p>
<p>So, two of us will not be living in the apartment over the summer. Who gets the money from the sub-leaser? Should the money be split four ways, or should the money only go to the two people who are not living in the apartment over the summer?</p>
<p>First questions that needs to be asked: What kind of apartment is this? Are you guys all on separate leases or just one lease? Who is the person on the lease?</p>
<p>Wouldn’t the money go towards the rent? Why would it go to anyone in the apartment?</p>
<p>It seems like the money should just go to the landlord to pay rent. It also seems like you’ll have to find a fourth person to live there over the summer to make up for the extra money needed.</p>
<p>The money will not be paid directly to the landlord because residents are supposed to handle sub-leases on their own. The sub-leaser pays us, and we then pay the landlord. When I say, ‘who does the money go to?,’ I mean, ‘whose share of the rent does it pay?’ I also realize that we would need a fourth person to recoup the costs but we were all willing to pay for the summer (all leases for apts start in June in my college town, so regardless of whether or not you stay for summer you have to pay for it to keep your spot) and having someone sub-lease was just an extra benefit to ease the cost. </p>
<p>It seems like I should probably just ask this question on my school’s board, maybe we just have a different apartment situation/culture.</p>
<p>Totally normal. I wouldn’t say it’s “different.”</p>
<p>Anyway, the deal I had with my apartment-mates was that if you were gone, you got someone to pay your rent. In other words, the subletter would pay the rent of the persons room they were in (plus the 1/3 of utilities - it’s a 3 room apt). </p>
<p>So in other words, in my opinion, the money should only go to either:
- the people not living in the apartment for the summer (split between the two of you, so you each pay half the rent)
- the person who got the subletter/ who filled their room.</p>
<p>There is absolutely no reason why it should go to the people living in the apartment. They’re taking full advantage of the apartment, so they should be paying full rent/utilities.</p>
<p>Thanks for answering the question! That makes sense.</p>