New York Woman Decided Not to Renew Her Lease and the Sublet She Met Just a Month Earlier Made 30 Videos and a GoFundMe About Her

Most leases end quietly. Boxes get packed, keys get handed back, and everyone moves on. Not this one. A New York City renter who posts as @marlynlikethefish says that after she decided not to re-sign her lease, the woman who had been subletting from her for only a few weeks responded by making a 30-part video series about her and starting a GoFundMe. “I genuinely don’t know how any of this is my fault,” she says in her reply.

Her caption suggests this is only the beginning: “This is not even scratching the surface of all the stories I have.”

Her Side of the Lease Story

The leaseholder says she met the woman “about a month ago,” when the woman began subletting a room. When she decided not to renew her lease and to move into a new place, the subletter was left needing to qualify for the apartment on her own.

She lays out her reasoning plainly. “A sublease is temporary by definition,” she says, adding that the woman was not entitled to anything just because she had moved in. She says she gave “plenty of notice and time to make arrangements,” and that the woman even admitted she found a new roommate within a day.

“The real issue is that the rent increased and now you need to qualify for the lease yourself,” she says. “That’s just how New York renting goes. I feel like that’s how renting goes in any state.”

She also points out a pattern. “You have moved five times within a year,” she says, suggesting the common thread in all that upheaval is not the people the woman sublet from.

What upset her most was the tone of the videos. She says they repeatedly discussed her finances, including her bills, pay stubs, and proof of income, while also calling her names and wishing bad things on her. “I have a job. I pay my bills on time. I even secured my new apartment,” she says. “I don’t even know you, and you don’t even know me. I just met you a month ago.”

Then there was the fundraiser. She shows the GoFundMe on screen and draws a clear line. A fundraiser for job loss, medical bills, or a genuinely hard stretch is one thing, she says. But in her view, this one framed her decision to move out as trapping the woman in a “traumatized, abusive situation,” when the real problem was not having the money for the apartment. “If you started a GoFundMe that said I can’t afford rent right now, that’s one thing,” she says.

She notes the woman is 30 and describes herself as being in her 20s. “Even I in my 20s understand the concept of how renting, how deposits, how moving, how all of that goes,” she says.

Despite everything, she insists she never wished the woman harm and hopes she gets approved with her new roommate. She closes with the bottom line: “You’re not getting evicted, you got the lease, and I’m moving out at the end of this month. And that’s it.”

@marlynlikethefish

What a Sublet Really Means

Whatever you think of the drama, the video touches on something many renters, and many parents of renters, misunderstand. A sublet is an arrangement between the person on the lease and the person moving in. The subletter’s right to live there comes through the original tenant’s lease, not from a separate deal with the landlord. When that lease ends and the leaseholder does not renew, the sublet generally ends too.

In New York, tenants in many buildings have a legal right to ask to sublet, but the process usually requires the landlord’s written consent, and the original tenant remains responsible for the rent and any damage. A subletter typically has no automatic right to take over or renew the lease. If they want to stay, they usually have to apply to the landlord like any new tenant, which means meeting the income and credit requirements at the current rent. In a city where landlords often look for annual income of around 40 times the monthly rent, a rent increase can put an apartment out of reach overnight.

Smart Steps for Anyone Subletting or Renting Out a Room

If you, a grown child, or a grandchild is about to sublet in either direction, a few precautions can prevent a lot of heartache.

Put it in writing. A simple sublease agreement should list the start and end dates, rent, deposit, house rules, and what happens if the main lease is not renewed.
Get landlord approval. Subletting without permission can put the leaseholder at risk of losing the apartment altogether.
Share the lease end date up front. The subletter should know from day one exactly when the original lease expires.
Give notice early. If you will not renew, tell your subletter as soon as you decide, in writing, so they have time to plan.
Handle the deposit clearly. Agree in advance how and when the subletter’s deposit will be returned.
Keep personal disputes private. Airing a housing disagreement publicly rarely fixes it. If a real legal question comes up, a local tenant organization or legal aid office is a better first stop.

For anyone on the subletting side, the leaseholder’s message is blunt but practical. Know when your arrangement ends, start your housing search early, and make sure you can qualify on your own if you hope to stay. In a tight rental market, that planning is the difference between a smooth move and a crisis.

Willow and Hearth