Sublicensing Your On-Campus Room/Apartment
The Process
Consult your Graduate Housing License Agreement to understand your legal responsibilities.
Read the Sublicense Policies listed on the Sublicense Center website.
The sublicensor can advertise their sublicense on the MIT Off-Campus website. Advertising is prohibited on Craigslist, Airbnb, or other similar sites.
The sublicensor is responsible for explaining house-specific policies to their sublicensee.
Sublicensors must first check into their assignment BEFORE they can sublicense their apartment and allow a sublicensee to begin their stay.
You may submit your advertisement under the ‘View Listings’ tab in the navigation. Once approved, your listing will be posted and searchable on the ‘View Listings’ page in the navigation tab.
Once a listing is approved, it cannot be edited by the sublicensor. Contact Graduate Housing, graduatehousing@mit.edu, to make changes to listings or applications.
The Housing & Residential Services approval processes for both listings and applications may take 5 business days. (During high volume periods the approval time may be longer.)
Sublicensees will be able to search and apply to your advertisement on the sublicense listings page.
When a sublicensee has applied for your sublicense, you will receive an email response with a link and instructions. You can also check for any pending applications in the ‘My Listings’ section.
Before you approve an application, agree and finalize all terms of the sublicense (i.e. sublicense dates, payment schedule, key exchange, etc.) with your sublicensee.
After you and the sublicensee have come to an agreement, you can approve the applications online.
Housing & Residential Services will receive notice of the approval, will confirm the sublicensee's MIT affiliation and send an email confirming or rejecting the sublicense. The sublicense is not approved until you receive an email confirmation from Housing & Residential Services.
Housing & Residential Services will activate the MIT ID card of the sublicensee for their date of arrival. Do not leave your MIT ID card with the sublicensee.
The sublicensee cannot occupy the space until the sublicense has been approved by Housing & Residential Services. Sublicensees can only begin residing in the apartment/room during the sublicense period. Sublicensees cannot reside in an apartment/room outside of the sublicense period dates.
Make arrangements between you and your sublicensee to transfer the keys. Do not leave keys with the sublicensee until the sublicense is approved by Housing & Residential Services.The front desk of the building will not facilitate this process. If keys are returned to the front desk, it will be considered as checking out for both the sublicensee and sublicensor.
Clean your apartment and allow adequate space in the refrigerator/bathroom in order for your sublicensee to utilize all apartment facilities.
Remove or consolidate personal items in your room.
Inform your roommates of potential sublets so they are aware of who will be residing in the apartment.
Points to Remember
Helpful tip: Consider breaking down dates for sublicense periods. You can make one listing for the whole period, but will not be able to then create multiple sublicenses or have different sublicensees for that one listing, if then desired.
A refundable deposit, not to exceed $300, may be requested. Refundable deposits cannot be applied to rent, nor used for a cleaning fee. Charging a cleaning fee is not permitted.
Rent cannot be more than the housing rates for the current year stated on the website. A sublicensor cannot include house tax in their rate.
The minimum time period for sublicensing is 14 days. Any sublicense request for less than the time period stated above will be denied.
Do not accept rent for the apartment until you receive official approval from Housing & Residential Services.
If a sublicensee backs out of a sublicense, Housing & Residential Services holds no responsibility and no rent refund will be given. If the sublicense is canceled, both sublicensor and sublicensee should notify Housing & Residential Services by emailing graduatehousing@mit.edu.
Please remember that a sublicense agreement is between members of the MIT community and not an agreement with Housing & Residential Services.
Housing & Residential Services does not provide receipts for reimbursements to sublicensors or sublicenees.
Important: Always check your spam/junk e-mail folders periodically as some of the email correspondence may get filtered to these folders.
If you are experiencing any difficulties, please email graduatehousing@mit.edu.