Sublease without contract?

[Juked07]

My friends and I have found a place to sublet over the summer. We're all students, and the sublandlord(s) are all students as well. I have met the people we're subletting from, and I have seen their facebooks, so they're almost certainly who they say they are and stuff. No one involved has experience with subletting. All of the details we have agreed on are in e-mail communication, with confirmation from the other party.

Do we need a contract? If so, how do we go about creating one?

 

[SandEagle]

yes

 

[Juked07]

I guess I'm more interested in advice about the second question. Obviously if I would not have difficulty drafting and getting such a thing signed, there wouldn't be an issue.. I found some templates when I googled it but they were all very.. legal-y.

 

[dud]

Subletting w/o a contract is like jumping out of an airplane without a parachute ...

You may get lucky and land on a soft haystack ... but you probably won't. With no contract they can evict you at any time w/o warning ... since you have no lease.

 

[Ika]

Next year there are six of us leasing an apartment. Two of us are leaving for the summer, so we need subletters. In our case, the housing company has sublet forms/contracts we can download and have our subletters sign. Ask your sublets if their housing company or landlord can provide sublet forms.

If you want to see our form, it's here: http://universitycityhousing.com/SubletPacket.pdf (warning: PDF link)

 

[MrColin]

Subletting w/o a contract is like jumping out of an airplane without a parachute ...

You may get lucky and land on a soft haystack ... but you probably won't. With no contract they can evict you at any time w/o warning ... since you have no lease.

Not true, the law varies from state to state. You should have something in writing unless you plan to stiff them on the rent. Here it takes about 60 days to evict someone, that's 2 months free! Since you are subletting the original lessee will get stuck with the bill + damages. If you sign anything, you are opening up yourself to get raped by an unscupulous landlord or rental co.

If you are in Madison, WI, and the lessor is Wisconsin Management, or has the last name Kozac, RUN AWAY!