Free Alabama Sublease Agreement Template

An Alabama sublease agreement is the contract between a tenant and the person taking over their rental. The Alabama Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, at chapter 9A of title 35, sets the rules for residential renting in the state.

What that chapter does not do is address subletting. Its tenant obligations run from section 35-9A-301 to 35-9A-304 — maintaining the unit, rules and regulations, access, and use and occupancy — and none of them mention subleasing or assignment. Whether a tenant may sublet at all is a question for the original lease.

Because the statute is silent on permission, the rules that bite hardest on an Alabama sublease agreement are the ones about money.

The Original Lease Decides Whether You Can Sublet

Read it before anything else. Where the lease requires the landlord’s written consent, get that consent in writing and keep it with the sublease.

One Month’s Rent, With Three Exceptions

A landlord may not demand or receive money as security in an amount exceeding one month’s periodic rent. The Act names three exceptions where more may be taken: pets, changes to the premises, and increased liability risks to the landlord or the premises.

That cap matters to a sublessor, because a tenant who takes a deposit from a subtenant is holding money as security in the same way.

Sixty Days, and an Itemized Notice

On termination, money held as security may be applied to accrued rent and to the damages suffered by reason of the tenant’s noncompliance with the statutory tenant obligations, all itemized in a written notice delivered together with the amount due, 60 days after termination of the tenancy and delivery of possession. Where the whole deposit is not refunded, the itemized list of amounts withheld goes out inside that same 60-day period.

The Forwarding Address, and a 90-Day Cliff

On vacating, the tenant must give a valid forwarding address in writing. Without one, the landlord mails the deposit or accounting by first class mail to the last known address, or to the tenant at the property’s address. Mailing to the written address within the 60 days is sufficient compliance.

Then the deadline that catches people out: any deposit left unclaimed by the tenant, and any outstanding check, is forfeited after 90 days.

Tip: An earlier version of this section ran on a 35-day clock, and some summaries still repeat it. The current text says 60 days. Figures are statutory and change, so confirm the current wording before relying on one.

The penalty is doubling. Where the landlord fails to mail a timely refund or accounting within the 60-day period, the landlord shall pay the tenant double the amount of the tenant’s original deposit.

Note what that doubles. It is the original deposit, not merely the portion wrongly held back, so a late accounting on a fully justified set of deductions still carries the penalty.

Two further points sit alongside it. The section does not stop either side recovering other damages they may be entitled to. And whoever holds the landlord’s interest in the premises when the tenancy ends is bound by the section, so a sale part-way through does not shed the obligation.

1. Check the original lease for a clause on subletting or assignment.
2. If consent is required, ask in writing and keep the reply.
3. Keep any deposit you take from a subtenant within one month’s rent, unless one of the three statutory exceptions genuinely applies.
4. Record the condition of the property in writing before the subtenant moves in.
5. Collect a written forwarding address when the subtenant leaves.
6. Send the refund or the itemized accounting inside 60 days of termination and delivery of possession.

For an Alabama sublease agreement, the terms worth setting down are:

• The sublease start and end dates, against the original lease term
• The rent, who it is paid to, and by when
• The deposit amount, and which exception applies if it exceeds one month
• The landlord’s written consent, attached where the lease requires it
• Which duties under the original lease pass to the subtenant