[The Actual]

I am looking for a summer sublet in New York. I have never done this before and want to be careful now so that it might save some headaches a couple months from now.

How have your experiences with short term sublets been? What are the unexpected things which came up for you?
What stipulations should I make sure are covered in the contract we agree on? The big ones I can think of are time frame and who is responsible for maintenance/damage during my stay.


I will probably be sharing an apartment with others. Any bad room mate experiences? How would you have avoided them?

 

[azncookiecutter]

Current subletter right now, 4 months, ending this week. Been a pretty awesome experience for me, patially because of pretty awesome roommates. One thing to do, take notice of everything when you move in, and keep track of it, just in case of damage and whatnot. Also, especially if you're sharing with others, delegate stuff like cleaning schedules as early as possible.
Stuff like bills can hit you unexpectedly, be ready to chip in, especially on end of lease bills that may sometimes spring up unexpectedly. Case in point: heating in my current place is by oil delivery, and our oil company for the winter months undercharged us by quite a bit, and we've been hit by an extra $950 to pay off before the end of the month.

 

[intoflatlines]

Quote:

Originally Posted by azncookiecutter /img/forum/go_quote.gif we've been hit by an extra $950 to pay off before the end of the month.

Damn.

To the OP, read the contract very very carefully and completely.

 

[darckhart]

I've had 3 good experiences so far and the main thing I've always done is to try to find friends or friends of friends who have the space because it's usually easier to negotiate things. Two things I've quibbled on are my share in heating/AC and broadband/tv. I was basically just looking for a place to shower/sleep because I spent all my waking time in the research lab on campus. The other thing was about pets. Turns out I was allergic to their dog that happened to be shedding at the time. Anyhoo, good luck. I don't envy those NY prices and sticky summer weather.