Month to Month Sublease
A tenant and landlord usually make an agreement called a lease, which identifies each party's duties in the landlord/tenant relationship. However, the tenant may enter into a sublease with a third party. A month-to-month sublease has a certain beginning date, but does not stipulate an end date. Those with specific lease questions should seek legal counsel.
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Definition of Sublease
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A sublease is a separate contractual agreement between the original tenant under a lease and a new tenant (the "sublessee") who will theoretically move into the lease premises and undertake some of the original tenant's obligations to the landlord under the lease. These obligations may include payment of rent, upkeep of the premises, etc. Subleases are generally legal, unless the original lease between tenant and landlord expressly forbids the original tenant to sublease the premises.
Sublease vs. Assignment
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If a tenant assigns a lease to another, that tenant will be wholly released from all of his obligations under the lease. A sublease, by contrast, does not transfer the whole original lease to the sublessee, nor does it relieve the original tenant of all of his duties under the original lease. The sublease transfers only some portion of the original landlord/tenant lease to the sublessee. Courts generally look at the original tenant's remaining responsibilities to decide whether a contract is an assignment or a sublease; the distinction is important, because the law treats the two types of contracts differently in many jurisdictions.
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Lease Enforcement
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Because a sublease is a contract between only the original tenant and the sublessee, the sublessee can generally only enforce promises made to him by the original tenant in the sublease agreement. He cannot enforce those promises made by the landlord to the original tenant in the original lease. Only the original tenant can demand that the landlord honor any promises. However, an original tenant and a sublessee have the option to execute an express assumption agreement, which makes the sublessee responsible for all promises in the original lease.
Periodic Tenancy
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Month-to-month rental is a form of periodic tenancy. Periodic tenancy is a lease for a certain period, which is meant to continue for multiple periods until one party gives the other notice of termination. A sublease may be month-to-month, even if the original lease between the landlord and the tenant is for a year or some other duration. The sublease agreement will control the periodic nature of the tenancy.
Termination of Sublease
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Termination of a periodic tenancy usually requires six months' notice under common law. However, most states' laws recognize an exception to this notice period if the recurring "period" of the tenancy is less than a year; for such tenancies, the notice requirement will generally be equal to the tenancy period. Thus, in a month-to-month sublease, the original tenant and sublessee would be required to give each other at lease one month's notice of intent to terminate the sublease. Note that this notice period would not govern the original lease; the landlord and original tenant would have different requirements of notice to terminate the original lease.
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