Subletting Clause
in Your Lease
What it actually means, what Oregon law says, what's specific to Portland - and exactly what to do. In plain English.
Quick Summary - What You Need to Know
- Oregon's Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, in our record, sets no response clock and no reasonableness standard for sublet consent.
- The only sublease section our record identifies is ORS 90.555, and it covers manufactured dwelling and floating home facilities, not apartments.
- ORS 90.555(2) requires a three-way written agreement - landlord, facility tenant and renter - for any rental over three days.
- ORS 90.275 offers apartment renters a temporary occupancy agreement instead: a three-party writing creating an occupant with no right of exclusive possession.
- Our record finds no Portland rule on subletting, so a Portland lease clause is not softened by the city code.
Understanding the Subletting Clause
A subletting clause decides whether you can hand your Portland apartment to somebody else for part of your term, and what happens if you skip asking. Our Oregon record answers the timing question with a flat no deadline: nothing in it puts a clock on your landlord's reply or requires a reason for a refusal.
It also finds no statutory right to sublet for an ordinary apartment tenant, which pushes the whole question back into your lease. Treat the summary here as a starting point and read the current text of the statutes named below before you rely on any of it.
What renters assume
Renters treat a summer sublet as their own arrangement: find someone dependable, hand over the keys, let the office know afterwards. Around Portland State, in shared houses on the east side, and anywhere a lease runs past a job move, that is the default plan.
What is actually true
Our Oregon record gives an ordinary apartment tenant no statutory right to sublet, so a clause requiring written consent is the operative rule. Moving someone in without that consent is a breach of the agreement you signed.
This chart is mostly empty, and Oregon is part of the reason. Only New York City's renters have a statutory answer - a landlord there must respond within 30 days. In Portland, as in every other city here, the response deadline is whatever the lease says it is.
Plain English Version
Subletting in Oregon works like lending out something you are still responsible for - the written agreement you signed decides whether it is allowed, and our record shows no state clock forcing an answer. If your clause says ask first, you ask first, and nothing in our record limits how long the reply can take.
Subletting Clause Example - What the Wording Looks Like in Portland, OR
The sample clause below is real lease language - a court quoted it word for word, and then ruled on it. What the judge decided is at the bottom of this block.
Find the equivalent paragraph in your own lease and read the two side by side. The wording will differ; the moving parts rarely do.
Occupancy of Premises — Tenant shall not assign nor underlet any part or the whole of the premises, nor shall permit the premises to be occupied for a period longer than a temporary visit by anyone except the individuals specifically named in the first paragraph of this tenancy, their spouses, and any children born to them hereafter, without first obtaining on each occasion the assent in writing of Landlord.
Quoted from the published opinion in Slavin v. Rent Control Board of Brookline, 406 Mass. 458, 548 N.E.2d 1226 (1990). Judicial opinions are not subject to copyright; the lease language is reproduced in limited part for commentary under 17 U.S.C. § 107.
“nor underlet any part or the whole”
Two transfers banned in one breath: the whole apartment, and any slice of it. A summer sublet of one bedroom needs the same written permission as handing over the keys for good. Oregon leaves that bargain where the lease put it - our Oregon record finds no general residential subletting or assignment provision in the Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, and its only sublease section, ORS 90.555, is written for manufactured dwelling and floating home facilities rather than apartments. Slavin is the warning about what such wording does alone: the court refused to read a duty of reasonableness into a consent clause lacking one.
“to be occupied for a period longer”
This is the occupancy half, catching the guest who stays on as squarely as a subtenant. Oregon names an instrument for that grey area: ORS 90.275 allows a temporary occupancy agreement, a three-party written agreement creating an occupant who is not a tenant and holds no right of exclusive possession. What it does not do is put a clock on the landlord, and no other section in our Oregon record does either, which leaves the paragraph you signed as the document answering timing.
“except the individuals specifically named in the first paragraph”
The named-tenant list is what turns a roommate change into a breach, and screening is where the argument lands. The screening rule in our Oregon record sits in the facility statute: ORS 90.555(8) lets a facility landlord screen the proposed renter under ORS 90.303, but bars criteria more restrictive than it uses for its own units. Portland's renter-protection code is strong on applicants - City Code 30.01.086 owes an applicant a record of a complete application's receipt within five business days. Our Portland record finds no city rule creating a sublet right or a response clock.
“each occasion the assent in writing”
Every time, in writing - consent given once for one roommate buys nothing for the next. Slavin is what makes that bite: absent lease language or a statute saying consent will not be unreasonably withheld, that landlord could refuse arbitrarily and the tenant's breach stood. Two other cities go further. New York's Real Prop. Law § 226-b gives a landlord in a four-or-more-unit building 30 days to consent or state reasons, and silence is deemed consent; Chicago's Mun. Code § 5-12-120 makes a covered landlord accept a reasonable sublease and bars any extra fee. Our Oregon record holds neither shape for apartments.
The landlord did not have to be reasonable, and the tenant lost. The Supreme Judicial Court read this clause and refused to add anything to it: a residential lease requiring the landlord's written assent before an assignment, an underletting or an additional occupant carries no implied duty to act reasonably. Absent express lease language - or a statute - saying consent will not be unreasonably withheld, the landlord may refuse arbitrarily, so a blanket refusal to accept any replacement occupant did not excuse the tenant's breach. The annulment of the rent board's decision was affirmed and the certificate of eviction ordered to issue. The court knew it was declining a trend: it found no demonstrable trend involving residential leases, reasoned that in a rent-controlled town a landlord has little economic incentive to withhold consent, warned that the opposite rule would generate a plethora of litigation, and handed the question to the Legislature - noting in a footnote that four states had already legislated, New York's Real Property Law § 226-b among them. Two limits belong with the holding. The disposition was not a clean sweep: the court reversed the Appellate Division's award of double costs and attorneys' fees even as it affirmed the annulment. And the closing footnote says the court makes no suggestion about the rule it might adopt in other contexts - this is a rule about residential leases and nothing wider.
One court, one lease, one state. That answer is not automatically yours, and your lease may be worded to land differently. Use this to know what to look for and what to ask - your state's tenant hotline or a local tenant attorney can answer it for your document.
Oregon Law on Subletting Clause
- ORS chapter 90's section index contains no general residential subletting or assignment provision; the only sublease section is ORS 90.555, limited to manufactured dwellings and floating homes in a facility.
- ORS 90.555(2) bars a facility tenant from renting out the dwelling for more than three days unless the facility landlord, the facility tenant and the renter all sign a written subleasing agreement - but sets no time limit for the landlord to answer.
- ORS 90.555(9) does limit refusals in one narrow case: a facility landlord who rents out (or has a policy of renting out) homes it has listed for sale may not prohibit a facility tenant from subleasing while the tenant actively markets the home for sale.
- ORS 90.555(8) lets the facility landlord screen the renter under ORS 90.303 but bars screening criteria more restrictive than for its own units, and ORS 90.555(5)(a) requires 30 days' written notice to end a sublease without cause.
- For ordinary apartments, ORS 90.275 offers only a 'temporary occupancy agreement' - a three-party written agreement creating a non-tenant occupant with no right of exclusive possession - and it too fixes no landlord response deadline.
- Portland City Code 30.01.086 imposes application-processing duties on landlords (for example, providing a record of a complete application's receipt within five business days), but those apply to rental applicants, not to sublet requests.
ORS 90.555 (no general sublet-response deadline in ORS ch. 90) - statutes change; verify the current text for your situation.
Our Oregon record identifies one sublease section in the Residential Landlord and Tenant Act: ORS 90.555. It is limited to manufactured dwellings and floating homes in a facility, and it works by requiring paperwork rather than by starting a clock.
Under ORS 90.555(2), a facility tenant may not rent out the dwelling for more than three days unless the facility landlord, the facility tenant and the renter all sign a written subleasing agreement. Our record notes that the section fixes no time limit for the landlord to answer, so even inside its narrow scope there is no deemed-consent moment to point at.
Two related provisions matter if you are in a facility. ORS 90.555(8) lets the landlord screen the renter under ORS 90.303 but bars screening criteria more restrictive than the landlord uses for its own units, and ORS 90.555(5)(a) requires 30 days' written notice to end a sublease without cause.
For an ordinary apartment, our record points instead to ORS 90.275, a temporary occupancy agreement. It is a three-party written agreement creating an occupant who is not a tenant and has no right of exclusive possession, and it too fixes no landlord response deadline. That is a different instrument from a sublease, and it is worth naming correctly when you write to your property manager.
Oregon Tenant Protections
The clearest protection in our Oregon record is narrow but real: ORS 90.555(9) limits refusals in one case, where a facility landlord rents out homes it has listed for sale, or has a policy of doing so. That landlord may not prohibit a facility tenant from subleasing while the tenant is actively marketing the home for sale.
ORS 90.555(8) adds a fairness rule on screening - the landlord may screen your proposed renter under ORS 90.303, but may not apply criteria more restrictive than it applies to its own units. And because our record sets no statutory sublet fee and no approval standard for ordinary apartments, every charge and condition has to come from the lease itself, which makes it negotiable before you sign.Confirm the current statute text before relying on these points.
What's Specific to Portland
Figures are the state rule, or the stronger city ordinance where one exists. Verify the current law for your own situation before relying on it.
Our record finds no Portland rule on subletting. That is worth saying plainly, because Portland's renter-protection code is unusually strong in other places and it is easy to assume the strength carries across.
Portland City Code Chapter 30.01, including sections 30.01.085 and 30.01.086, covers no-cause termination notice, relocation assistance and applicant screening. Our record checked both of those sections and found that neither creates a sublet right, a landlord response clock, or a reasonableness standard for sublet consent.
One of them is a near miss that trips people up. Portland City Code 30.01.086 imposes application-processing duties on landlords - for example, providing a record of a complete application's receipt within five business days - but our record confirms those duties run to rental applicants, not to sublet requests. A person you propose as a subtenant is not applying for their own tenancy, so that five-day duty is not a sublet answer deadline. The lease paragraph does all the work here, so read it before you promise anyone a move-in date.
It should name the steps and a reply window. Our Oregon record sets no deadline, so the only clock you get is the one printed in your lease.
That single line is your best leverage. Our record shows no general reasonableness duty, but a written promise binds as a contract term.
Push back before you sign rather than after. A flat no means you carry rent on an empty unit for the rest of the term.
Watch for an administrative charge with no number attached. Our Oregon record sets no sublet fee either way, so insist on a fixed dollar amount in writing.
Sources
The law this guide relies on, and where to read it. Statutes change, so confirm the current text before you act on it.
- ORS 90.555 (no general sublet-response deadline in ORS ch. 90), read on oregon.public.law. Oregon publishes the official text at www.oregonlegislature.gov.
Red Flags to Watch Out For
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Consent at landlord's sole discretion
Our Oregon record shows no general reasonableness standard for sublet consent, so this wording makes a flat refusal hard to argue with.
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No reply deadline in the clause
Our record sets no state answer deadline, so a lease silent on timing can leave your request open while your replacement finds somewhere else.
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Unapproved sublet equals instant default
A clause turning any unapproved sublet into immediate breach converts a summer handoff into a default. Get written consent before anyone moves in.
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Sublease and occupancy used interchangeably
ORS 90.275's temporary occupancy agreement creates an occupant with no right of exclusive possession. That is not a sublease, and the difference changes your paperwork.
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Verbal approval from the leasing office
A staff member saying it is fine will not survive turnover. Get approval in writing, naming your subtenant and the exact dates.
Your Rights as a Portland Tenant
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Facility sale marketing protects subleasing
ORS 90.555(9): a facility landlord that rents out homes it has listed for sale may not prohibit subleasing while you actively market your home for sale.
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Screening can't be stricter than the landlord's own
ORS 90.555(8) permits screening your renter under ORS 90.303 but bars criteria more restrictive than the landlord applies to its own units.
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Facility subleases end on 30 days' notice
ORS 90.555(5)(a) requires 30 days' written notice to end a sublease without cause in a manufactured dwelling or floating home facility.
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Your lease can beat the silence
Where our record sets no figure, a clause granting broader sublet rights or a promised reply window controls. Read your own paragraph before assuming no.
What To Do - Step by Step
Read your sublet clause first
Find whether consent is required, what approval costs, and whether assignment is banned too. With no state clock in our record, that paragraph is the rulebook.
Check the current statute text
Open ORS 90.555 and ORS 90.275 yourself and confirm the wording before you rely on it.
Name the right instrument
A sublease and an ORS 90.275 temporary occupancy agreement are different things. Ask for the one you actually want, in those words.
Ask in writing, always
Email your property manager the person's name, the dates and the rent. A written request is the only version you can prove later.
Screen your replacement yourself
Bring someone who already clears the building's income and credit standards. With no reasonableness duty in our record, a weak candidate is an easy refusal.
Set your own follow-up date and get the yes on paper
Pick a date, follow up in the same email thread, and never let anyone move in on a verbal okay.