You can be responsible for the full lease term regardless of what your subletter does. However, if you had subleased the unit, you could use the contract you made with him/ her to hold them responsible for the final 2 months. If you had a verbal agreement with your subletter, you’re stuck.

As far as your renters rights are concerned… not too much to say other than the fact that you are required to fulfill your contractual obligation to the landlord. There are really only a couple of valid ways to get out of a lease… moving out of state isn’t one of them.

My suggestion is to work with your subletter to find a new tenant to take the last two months. Explain the situation and I’m sure the person you rented to will be somewhat helpful to show the unit to other prospects. Worse case scenario, you could offer the unit for 1 or 2 hundred dollars less. This way you can find someone fast and will only be responsible for $100 to $200 of rent– much better than the full amount.

You can also work directly with the original landlord to explain your situation to see if he/she is willing to work with you on breaking the lease. If you go this option, you will want to put it in writing. If the landlord verbally releases you from the contract, it will hold no weight and could come back to haunt you. (meaning that your landlord could send the owed money off to collections, etc which will hurt your credit)

Now you have the option to ask you subletter to stay beyond 3 months, i.e., till your original contract done with landlord for 5 months. If not ask the subletter to search for someone that can stay to this apartment for the 2 remaining months, If you have made the contract with your subletter that he will stay till 5 months, then you have upper hand. or ask you can try with landlord to come to some terms where by small fine you can move on and he can give the apartment to some other tenant. Thanks