Subleasing help

[Theresa Colbert]

Hey BP,

We find ourselves rather abruptly moving to be closer to my FIL during his last months/years with a terminal illness. Our lease isn't up yet, and we're looking to sublease. Already cleared it with the landlord, and it was only after I sent out an email about the place to a local group I'm a part of that I realized my ignorance about subleases...so now I have some questions I hope y'all can quickly help me with!

1) How much to charge for security deposit?

2) Is it better to ask for the full amount of rent (+ security deposit?) up front, or to let them pay month by month?

3) If they paid month to month, they're paying *us*, right? And then we pay the landlord?

4) Where to run a background check? 

5) Can we switch our utilities over to their name (if they want), or should we just cancel them and pay the fee?

Thanks very much!