Temporary relocation for work (7-12 months). Should I renew the lease or rerent?

[Stephen Yablonski]

Hi all,

This is for a 1bed/1bath unit in 2-family home in the greater Boston area.  I believe I know what the general recommendations will be, but I'm curious to get other people's opinions here.

My current tenants are non-US citizens, and have been working in the US for 5 years now (at a US based company).  They are being relocated internationally (back to their home country) for a short term assignment between 7-12 months.  This was completely unexpected (they recently bough all new furniture, and occurred 2 days after I sent the lease renewal), but came with a promotion.  They will find out the exact duration over the next week.  They've been renting from me for 1 year and have been perfect (literally perfect) tenants during that time.  Extremely grateful, take excellent care of the unit, are loved by the the neighbors and the tenants in the other unit.  They would love to keep the unit and are considering floating the rent for the duration but just can't quite make it work.   They have been trying to find a friend who would be willing to lease the unit from me for the duration of their assignment without luck.  One option they floated past me today was keeping the lease in their name and sub-letting to a friend for the assignment duration.  The current tenants would continue to pay the rent as this friend cannot afford it (the friend would pay some rent amount to the current tenants).

This is a great unit, and very easy to rent. In the 7 days since I've found out they are being relocated. I've listed listed the unit, done two sets of showings for a total of 14 groups, and received 12 applications of which 10 meet my criteria.  This is at $150 higher rent than I had sent over in my lease renewal.

If they weren't such great tenants I wouldn't even be considering it (even with raising the rent to the higher amount), but my gut reaction is that too many things can go wrong with them out of the country and someone living in my apartment who can't afford it.

I would be crazy to renew the lease with them and have a subletter, right?

[Rosa Regier]

Tricky. What happens if the current tenant's company tells them they're not returning to your city? They might not get a guaranteed return date or they might be promoted again at another location. It's challenging to hold an off-site tenant accountable to the lease terms.  

I'd rather lease to people who will actually occupy the property. It gives them a greater sense of responsibility for their living space since the full amount of the rent is coming out of their own pockets & have an interest in maintaining the property.