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Thank you for using SublettingU, the marketplace where university students connect to sublet apartments to and from one another. The way you behave on the Platform, the content you post, and the listings you offer should help build a community where students can find safe, fairly-priced housing for the time they need it. The standards below explain what that looks like in practice. With your commitment to these standards, we can keep SublettingU a place where students trust each other enough to hand over their keys and their security deposits. In the event of any conflict between these Community Guidelines and the SublettingU Platform Terms of Acceptable Use, the Platform Terms of Acceptable Use govern.
If you see something on the Platform that you believe violates these Community Guidelines, the Platform Terms of Acceptable Use, or applicable law, whether in a listing, a profile, a message, a review, a report, or anywhere else, please report it to us at safety@sublettingu.com or through the in-Platform reporting tools. Combined with our automated controls and human review, these reports help us identify and act on misconduct. Please use the reporting tools responsibly and only for their intended purpose. False or retaliatory reports may themselves be a violation of these Guidelines. In urgent situations involving threats to physical safety, contact local law enforcement first; we will cooperate with law-enforcement requests as set out in our Privacy Policy.
These Community Guidelines apply to every user of the Platform, whether you are listing a sublet, booking a sublet, communicating with another user, or simply browsing. Depending on the severity of a violation, the harm caused or threatened, and the user’s history, we may take any one or more of the following actions: limit the visibility of a listing or other content; label, edit, or remove a listing, profile element, message, or review; require additional verification or proof from the user; cancel a booking in progress and route funds in accordance with the Cancellation Policy; suspend or terminate a user’s account; withhold or reverse payouts to the extent permitted by the Platform Terms of Acceptable Use and our agreement with our payment processor; refuse future use of the Platform; and where appropriate, refer matters to law enforcement, fraud-prevention services, or other authorities. Repeated, intentional, or egregious offenses will result in account termination. Where you believe an enforcement action was taken in error, you may submit an appeal to safety@sublettingu.com within thirty (30) days of the action.
SublettingU brings strangers together to live in each other’s homes. That only works if users treat each other with the basic respect they would expect from a neighbor or roommate.
Do not harass, bully, or threaten other users.We do not allow targeted personal attacks, intimidation, doxxing, shaming, or abusive language directed at other users, their guests, their roommates, their family members, their landlords, or their universities. Do not reveal another user’s personal or sensitive information, including their address, phone number, student ID, government ID, or place of work, except as needed to perform a booking under the Platform Terms of Acceptable Use. Do not incite others to harass or harm anyone. Do not engage in repetitive negative messaging, persistent contact after being asked to stop, or other behavior that disrupts another user’s use of the Platform.
Do not discriminate or use hateful language. Do not deny a sublet, cancel a booking, set a listing price, set listing terms, or otherwise treat a user differently because of race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, familial status, marital status, age, disability, military or veteran status, source of income, or any other characteristic protected by the federal Fair Housing Act or applicable state or local law. Do not post content that attacks, denigrates, dehumanizes, or incites violence or discriminatory action against individuals or groups because of any of those characteristics. Hate groups and hate symbols are not permitted on the Platform. The gender filter the Platform offers is a self-representation tool that helps users find compatible roommates and housing arrangements; it does not authorize Fair Housing violations and is not a basis for unlawful selection.
Do not threaten, incite, or promote violence. Do not threaten any user, group, or property. Do not promote, glorify, or solicit violence, property damage, organized criminal activity, or harm against any person. Do not bring weapons into a Premises in violation of the Master Lease, building rules, or applicable law. Do not use the Platform to coordinate or facilitate violent activity of any kind.
Do not treat the Platform as a dating service or engage in sexual harassment. SublettingU exists to facilitate sublets, not romantic connections. Do not send unwanted expressions of attraction, propositions, sexual advances, sexual comments on appearance, lewd remarks, or sexually explicit images or messages to any user, before or after a booking. Do not condition the offer, price, or terms of a sublet on a romantic or sexual relationship. Do not pressure a counterparty into in-person meetings beyond what is necessary to conduct a sublet. Sexual harassment by Listers, Renters, roommates, or other parties connected to a booking is grounds for immediate suspension and removal from the Platform.
A subletting marketplace runs on trust between people who have not met. Listers must be honest about themselves and their properties, and Renters must be honest about themselves and how they intend to use the Premises.
Use your real identity and your real university affiliation.Register under your true legal name, use a current email address you control, and complete identity verification (including the government-issued ID and selfie steps) honestly and as yourself. Maintain an active and accurate affiliation with the university you identify on your profile. Do not register an account on behalf of another person, share your account credentials, or use another user’s account. Do not maintain duplicate accounts to evade enforcement actions, reviews, or filters.
Use a real and current photo of yourself, not someone else. Profile photos must depict you, taken recently enough to be recognizable. Do not use stock photos, photos of public figures, photos of friends or family members, AI-generated likenesses presented as you, or any other image that misrepresents your appearance to other users.
Represent yourself honestly in fields that other users rely on. When you fill in profile or listing fields that other users rely on to make decisions, including gender, smoker status, pet status, occupants, and similar attributes, your answers must be truthful. We do not require any particular self-identification, but we do require that what you provide be accurate. Do not misrepresent yourself in order to gain access to a listing, a roommate filter, or another feature.
List only Premises you actually have the right to sublet.Only the leasehold tenant, or another person clearly authorized in writing to sublet, may list a Premises on the Platform. Before publishing a listing you must have, or expect in good faith to obtain in time for the booking, your landlord’s written consent to the sublease as required by your lease. Provide accurate information about your lease term, your role, and any restrictions imposed by the master lease, building, homeowners’ association, or condominium association. Do not list a Premises you do not occupy, do not have a lease for, or have been told you may not sublet.
Make your listings accurate and current.Photos in a listing must be of the actual Premises being offered, taken within a reasonable period before posting, not staged, not stock, not AI-generated, and not lifted from a real-estate listing or another platform. The listing’s description (address, neighborhood, square footage, layout, bedroom and bathroom counts, furnishings, amenities, parking, building rules, and pet and smoking policies) must reflect the Premises’ actual condition and rules. Update or take down a listing promptly if it becomes inaccurate. Do not post duplicate listings of the same Premises for the same time period.
SublettingU is a neutral venue, not a party to your transaction, and we do not hold or escrow your money. Renters and Listers may pay either way the Listing allows: online by card — a direct charge to the Lister’s own connected Stripe account, where the Lister is the merchant of record and SublettingU takes no fee and is not in the funds flow — or off-platform, by cash, check, Venmo, Zelle, or another method the parties agree on and settle directly between themselves. Both paths are legitimate. What matters is that you transact honestly, understand the trade-off, and never use a payment to defraud the other party.
Understand the protection trade-off before you pay. Paying online by card keeps your normal card-payment recourse with your card issuer against the Lister. Paying off-platform carries no platform protection: there is no SublettingU-held escrow, no platform dispute process, and no chargeback. If you pay off-platform, do so only with a counterparty you trust, keep your own records, and sign the sublease first. Do not pressure a counterparty into a payment method they are not comfortable with, and do not misrepresent how a payment is protected.
Do not commit payment fraud or chargeback abuse. Do not pay or attempt to pay with a stolen, fraudulent, or unauthorized payment instrument. Do not initiate a chargeback or reversal where you actually received the benefit of the booking and are not entitled to a refund under the Cancellation Policy or applicable law. Do not orchestrate sham bookings to launder funds, manipulate ratings, or generate referral or promotional credits.
Do not run scams or use the Platform to defraud anyone.Do not list a Premises you do not intend to provide, do not collect funds intending to disappear, do not pressure a counterparty into an off-Platform transfer, do not use the Platform to run rental scams, advance-fee scams, romance scams, pyramid schemes, or phishing campaigns, and do not share malware, ransomware, or links designed to compromise another user’s device or account.
Do not spam, scrape, or repurpose the Platform.Do not send unsolicited promotional messages, mass-message users, post off-topic listings, or use the Platform’s messaging tools for commercial outreach unrelated to a sublet booking. Do not scrape, harvest, or copy listings, photos, profile data, or messages, whether by hand or by automated means. Do not use the Platform to drive traffic to a competing service, a roommate-finder service, or a non-housing service.
Comply with applicable law and the rules that govern the Premises.Listers and Renters are each independently responsible for compliance with the laws and rules that apply to the Premises and to their use of it. This includes the master lease; condominium, cooperative, or homeowners’ association rules; local zoning, short-term rental, and occupancy ordinances; state landlord-tenant law; federal, state, and local fair-housing laws; and tax-reporting obligations. Do not list a Premises whose use as a sublet is prohibited by the master lease or by local law unless you have a verifiable exception. Do not use the Premises in violation of those rules during the sublet term.
If you are not sure whether something is permitted under these Community Guidelines, ask before you post or message. Reach our trust and safety team at safety@sublettingu.com. For questions about the Platform Terms of Acceptable Use, contact support@sublettingu.com. For questions about our handling of personal information, contact legal@sublettingu.com. We may update these Community Guidelines from time to time; the version in effect when you post or transact is the version that applies. Capitalized terms used and not defined here have the meanings given in the Platform Terms of Acceptable Use.
Do not share sexually explicit, graphic, or shocking material. Do not post sexually explicit content, nudity, or content depicting sexual activity in listings, profiles, messages, or reviews. Do not post content that is gratuitously graphic, gory, or shocking, including depictions of severe injury, animal cruelty, or self-harm. Do not promote, encourage, or instruct in self-harm, eating disorders, drug abuse, or weapons creation. If you encounter a user who appears to be in crisis, report it using our reporting tools and, where appropriate, contact local emergency services.
Do not endanger minors. The Platform is restricted to users who are at least eighteen (18) years old. Do not create an account on behalf of a minor, do not list or book a sublet for a minor traveling alone, and do not share, post, transmit, or solicit content depicting the sexual exploitation of children. We have zero tolerance for such content and will report it to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and to law enforcement.
Do not promote dangerous organizations or activity. Do not use the Platform to support, recruit for, or coordinate activity of terrorist organizations, violent extremist groups, or organized criminal groups. Do not list a Premises that is held out for the purpose of facilitating any such activity.
Do not impersonate, mislead, or share deceptive content. Do not impersonate another person, business, organization, or university official. Do not share content that is false, misleading, or intended to deceive other users about a Premises, a booking, a Lister, a Renter, or the Platform itself. Do not share synthetic or manipulated media depicting a person saying or doing something they did not, without a clear disclosure of the synthetic nature of the material.
Do not write or solicit fake or coerced reviews and complaints. Reviews, complaints, and reports submitted through the Platform must reflect genuine experience. Do not write a review or complaint about a person or Premises you have no first-hand experience with, do not solicit positive reviews in exchange for a benefit, do not threaten a negative review to extract concessions, and do not retaliate against another user for filing a good-faith report or review.
Keep the Premises safe and habitable while you are there. Renters: treat the Premises and its furnishings with reasonable care, comply with the master lease and building rules, and notify the Lister and, where required by the master lease, the landlord, of any conditions that require repair. Listers: deliver the Premises in habitable condition, including working utilities, locks, smoke and carbon-monoxide detectors as required by law, and any other safety items required by the master lease or applicable law. Do not list or accept a Premises with known habitability defects without disclosing them.
Respect the Platform’s integrity.Do not attempt to interfere with the Platform’s operation, security, or content moderation. Do not exploit bugs or vulnerabilities for personal gain instead of reporting them. Do not use the Platform to circumvent another user’s block or report. Do not attempt to influence ratings, complaints, search ranking, or recommendations through artificial means.