My son is looking for an apartment in Denton. He visited one last Friday and they said they had a few folks looking to get out of their leases and he could get one of those apartments.

He was told free move-in and no security deposit. Today he called to ask a few more questions about the lease and was told there would be a $250 "sub lease" fee. I thought the person moving out should pay that?

Help!

Is the fee being charged by the complex or the current lease holder? If it's the complex it may be some sort of application fee to do a credit & background check on your son. If the subletting is done through the complex and not under the table, the complex is still going to require their basic tenant checks that they do.

It is the complex charging the fee.

Sounds high. I would find out what their regular fees are... probably not $250 non-refundable.

It should say in the lease how subleasing is handled. Your son needs to see the lease he is sub leasing to make sure there isn't anything out of the ordinary. A typical sublease on a single family rental property usually has both the original tenant and the sublease tenant pay a fee. And the fee varies for the original tenant depending on who found the sublease tenant.

Thanks!

I have clarification finally!

The current leaseholder payed Jan rent. My son will move in on Jan 10th only paying a $250 'sublet' fee. We will pay the rest of the rent payments February 1 thru July 31st.

The sublet fee of $250 is less than the 2/3 monthly rent of $352.

Thanks for all the help from Jmazz and SoTheySay.

Sublet fee is standard. Usually only one party pays it, and it can sometimes be the choice of the other party. I wouldn't worry about it. Sounds like a decent deal.

You're right...I said earlier both parties pay it...that's wrong. The fee can either be a set price or a percentage of rent and can be one cost if the current tenant finds the sub-tenant and another if the landlord finds the sub-tenant.