Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Oregon

Subleasing an apartment

Please help. My husband and I signed a 12 month lease and recently found a house we would like to buy in 2 months. As we will still have 8 months left of our lease at closing, we would like to sublease our apartment with the landlord's approval. (With regard to subleases, our lease only states that that we may not sublet the premises without the lessor's written consent.) However, our landlord (who has been quite threatening and verbally abusive over our desire to vacate the premises) does not want to give us written approval to sublease our place...even though we advertised on our own and found some people willing to go through the application/approval process for our apartment. My question is: Do we have legal remedy if our landlord denies us the right to sublease our apartment since subleasing isn't forbidden by the lease? Do we have any rights at all in this matter? This situation has evolved into quite a mess, and my husband and I can't believe how terribly we are being treated for honestly trying to work with the landlord and find a mutually agreeable solution.


Asked on 3/18/03, 2:08 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Michael Zusman Evans & Zusman, P.C.

Re: Subleasing an apartment

The quick answer: the landlord may have an obligation under the lease to grant consent in the absence of a good reason not to. In other words, if your proposed lessees have decent credit and their references check out, it would be unreasonable for the landlord to withhold consent. Even if the lease permits the landlord to withhold consent for any reason at all, the landlord's failure to accept a solid sub-lessee may establish that landlord has not mitigated any damages he might incur from your early departure under the lease. Even though you signed a year long deal, if you are able to produce a ready, willing and able tenant, the landlord cannot validly claim any financial harm resulting from your failure to stay the whole year.

I hope this makes sense to you. If you wish to discuss this further, feel free to give me a call to set up an appointment.

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Answered on 3/18/03, 4:04 pm


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