Breaking a Clinton Management Lease: Assignment or Sublet?

Step 1 · Permission

Reach the team handling your building’s lease changes.

Use your onsite office or the building link in Clinton’s resident directory. Ask for the person handling lease amendments, owner consent, and outgoing-tenant releases. For routing help, call 718-281-2400 or email info@clintonmanagement.com.

Say whether everyone is leaving, one roommate is changing, or you plan to return. Keep the response and follow any formal notice instructions in your lease separately.

Step 2 · Written terms

Confirm your apartment’s program and replacement offer.

• Housing program: whether eligibility or compliance review is required for the proposed change.
• Rent and dates: approved rent, start date, remaining or new lease term, and any concession.
• Application and costs: the current package, accepted guarantor arrangements, itemized quote, and security instructions.
• Release: the agreement, signatures, payments, and effective date ending your obligations.

A building can have apartments with different requirements. Have the reply identify your unit before using it to assess a prospect or advertise an offer.

Step 3 · Choose the route

Match the agreement to the household change.

For an affordable apartment, contact cm_leasing@cmnyc.com or 347-287-3100 for the applicable admission and household-change process. Ask about eligibility, waiting lists, subsidy approval, and any required agency involvement before arranging a replacement.

New York Real Property Law § 226-b generally requires written owner consent for assignment and sets a separate sublet procedure for covered apartments in buildings with four or more residential units. Regulated and special-program apartments can have additional rules; confirm the applicable process for your unit.

Step 4 · Applicant requirements

Ask which criteria apply before selecting the renter.

Get the qualifying rent, income calculation, accepted evidence, credit review, and personal or third-party guarantor options for the approved transaction. Confirm how self-employment, variable earnings, a new job, or rental assistance is documented.

If some tenants stay, ask whether the remaining household must requalify and whether the existing guaranty continues. Identify leaseholders, occupants, and guarantors separately.

For a program apartment, have the compliance team confirm the required review before calling a candidate eligible. A general availability application may not be the correct household-change route.

Step 5 · Apply

Use the current checklist and authorized submission channel.

Have the building team issue the application or amendment package for your unit and approved structure. Give the prospect the same rent, dates, and term that management confirmed.

• Confirm which applicants, remaining tenants, and guarantors must submit.
• Prepare the requested identity, income, financial, reference, and program records.
• Submit sensitive documents through the designated channel.
• Confirm receipt, missing items, the decision contact, and the next signing step.

For a temporary sublet, complete the applicable consent request as well as management’s intake steps. Do not assume a portal message or ordinary application completes the legal process.

Step 6 · Find the replacement

Advertise the approved apartment and terms accurately.

After permission, use current photos, the actual layout, approved rent, recurring charges, start date, and lease length. State whether the offer is for the whole unit or a roommate change, and clarify furniture and occupied showing access.

Have management confirm any concession or renewal offer before including it. Put an incentive you fund in writing and keep it separate from the recurring lease rent.

Keep the listing consistent with the approved process. Do not advertise only the old remaining term when the incoming renter must sign a new lease. Confirm any change to price, dates, or household before revising the offer.

Step 7 · Money

Get an itemized exit quote and separate deposit instructions.

Ask for final rent through the agreed date, any proposed transfer or surrender charge, concession treatment, move costs, and security accounting. Confirm what each charge covers, where it is authorized, and what changes if the replacement starts later.

For covered applications, § 238-a caps background and credit checks at actual cost or $20, whichever is less. It requires a report copy and receipt or invoice, with a waiver for a qualifying report from the past 30 days.

When one roommate stays, ask how the existing deposit and any private reimbursement will be recorded. Do not assume a payment between roommates replaces management’s accounting or that security pays final rent. Agree separately on any brokerage service you hire.

Step 8 · Finish the change

Check the release before possession or household names change.

Review the final agreement for every departing tenant and guarantor, effective date, balances, required payments, and possession conditions. Ask what happens if the approved renter withdraws before signing or moving.

Coordinate the move reservation, mover insurance, elevator access, inspection, keys, and access credentials. Photograph condition, align utilities and services with the handoff, provide a forwarding address, and retain the signed documents and final account.

Work through permission, any compliance review, the complete application, approval, signatures, funds, and the move. Get revised dates and rent responsibility in writing if any stage is delayed.

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.