Hi there!

Firstly, I want to thank you in advance for taking into consideration my request. I am new in this page and frankly, it is been a relief to have found it!

I am going to move soon to California for 6 months. I am from Germany and I am going with a Worker´s Visa status.

It is been very difficult to find a place to stay from here but I finally found something/someone very nice! And I would have my own room in a very beautiful shared house. The problem is that they ask me to sign a lease for one year and in case I do not stay longer than six months, I could find someone to take over my part of the lease.

What are my responsibilities?

I know, I have to talk about it with the landlord but I am asking here about general terms to know a little about the situation and my rights... Because in my country, it is not legal to do so (subletters) although a lot of people do it, mostly students...

And the main question is: Can I sign a lease without credit history??

Thank you very much in advance!
Best,
Laura

Unless I misunderstand your question, you can sign the lease without a credit history so long as the landlord is not bothering with a credit check I believe. If they are not asking for your social security number to do a credit check then they are not concerned with it. Usually landlords do credit checks but maybe not in your given situation. Some will look at "no credit history" as bad credit so you'll have to get that part straight with your prospective landlord. I'm not so sure though about signing a one year lease if you already know that you are not staying longer than 6 months. Unless you already know someone that you will sublet it to. You don't want any problems being that you'll be locked into a lease. See what the exact terms are and what the LL says if you can't find someone after 6 months. More importantly, carefully read everything in that lease, especially the fine print, before signing it. And sit tight here. Some experts will be along to answer your question too. Best of luck to you and welcome aboard here.