Breaking an Argo Lease: Assignment or Sublet?

Step 1 · Permission

Identify whose consent you need, then ask for the exit terms.

Start with your property manager. Argo’s main office publishes info@argo.com and 212-896-8600 for routing. Include the unit, legal landlord, leaseholders, lease end, and preferred departure.

Explain whether everyone leaves, one roommate changes, or you intend to return. Follow your lease’s notice method and ask who can sign the owner’s consent and release.

Step 2 · Written terms

Get the owner’s terms and any building requirements together.

• Offer: rent, remaining term or new lease, concessions, charges, and start conditions.
• Application: current checklist, submission link, review contact, and any separate building package.
• Costs: itemized charges, payees, due dates, final rent, and security.
• Release: when each departing tenant’s and guarantor’s obligations end.

Ask whether a building decision must happen before the owner signs or gives possession. Set the proposed move around those actual requirements.

Assignment or sublet?

Choose the route and check how your tenancy affects it.

New York’s assignment and sublet law excludes qualifying proprietary leases. Renting from a shareholder is a different relationship from holding that shareholder’s lease. If the documents or required permissions are unclear, get them reviewed before proceeding.

Step 3 · Qualification

Use the criteria for your rental and its building.

Argo’s leasing services cover its own rentals and units in co-ops and condos. Check which situation applies:

• Direct rental: ask the landlord’s team for replacement screening and consent terms.
• Individual-owner rental: coordinate your landlord’s approval with any separate building review.
• Shareholder’s proprietary lease: use the co-op’s sublet rules and current package.

Get the income, credit, household, guarantor, and document requirements for the actual application. Ask which records or lawful alternatives are accepted and whether the building needs anything additional.

Step 4 · Application

Track completeness, decisions, and signing as separate steps.

Have the manager send the applicant’s current package and submission route. For example, the Garden at 75th management page has its own sublet-form entry. Use that building’s current instructions if it is your address; obtain your own building’s package elsewhere.

• Check the owner, apartment, household, rent, term, and proposed start.
• Have candidates submit sensitive records through the designated channel.
• Ask for missing items and confirmation that the file is complete.
• Identify any interview, building decision, owner consent, and signing still required.

Request the applicant’s own link rather than sharing a resident or board-member login. Ask which decision must be received before scheduling the move.

Step 5 · Find the replacement

Advertise the terms and approvals that actually apply.

Get permission to list and show the unit. Use the approved rent, term, concessions, recurring charges, and application requirements. Describe any building review accurately so candidates can plan around it.

• Photos: show the actual unit and condition.
• Access: agree on showing notice, hours, attendance, and keys.
• Preparation: settle cleaning, repairs, clearing, and furniture staying.
• Start: keep possession conditional on approvals, signing, payments, and readiness.

Do not advertise “no board approval” or immediate occupancy unless the manager has confirmed those terms for your unit. Update the offer if the required review changes the proposed dates.

Fees and security

Get each charge’s purpose, payee, and refund terms.

Ask for an itemized exit proposal covering final rent, any proposed assignment or building charges, security, moving, and services. Confirm what is due if the candidate withdraws or approval is delayed.

• Final rent: the last day charged and any agreed proration.
• Security: outgoing refund or credit, incoming deposit, and deductions.
• Building: the basis and refund conditions for any application or move charge.
• Brokerage: who hired the broker, the work, and fee responsibility in writing.

For covered screening, New York law caps reimbursement at actual cost or $20, whichever is less, with report, receipt, and recent-report waiver requirements. Co-op provisions depend on the transaction; a board-fee label alone does not establish an exemption.

NYC’s FARE Act guidance prohibits passing a landlord’s agent’s fees to prospective renters. Confirm each broker’s role before allocating a charge.

Approval and handoff

Finish the owner’s agreement as well as the building process.

Coordinate required decisions, signatures, payments, apartment readiness, and move reservations. Ask the manager to confirm that the conditions for your release have been met.

• Check the executed release for each departing tenant and guarantor.
• Photograph the condition and complete agreed clearing or repairs.
• Arrange move access, required insurance documents, keys, fobs, and utilities.
• Provide forwarding details and retain the final ledger and security accounting.

Keep the owner’s consent, any building decision, and signed agreements together. A board response or key handoff alone does not close the old tenancy.

Find a replacement renter

I can help turn management’s terms into a listing and a qualified applicant.

I prepare the listing, manage inquiries and showings, screen prospective renters, and help the selected applicant complete management’s requirements. Management makes the approval decision. My role and broker fee are agreed in writing before marketing starts.

Send the address, rent, lease end date, preferred move date, and management’s reply.

Discuss my lease

For the broader legal options, see the NYC lease-break guide.