I am of the belief that rent controlled apartments, like public housing, could not be sublet, but that rent stabilized apartments could be (at least in NYC).
Rent control has been a struggle to phase out. More than twenty years ago, there were many tens of thousands still rent controlled, often at absurdly low rates from WWII. Illegal secret sublets were common in rent controlled apartments to people outside the nuclear family, because they were so valuable (like paying $100/month in Manhattan for a big apartment, and charging $2,100 to the sub).
Guiliani and Bloomberg finally sun-setted (or identified fraud) of most of the rent controlled apartments. Now the great bulk are rent stabilized (much closer to market rates). Rent controlled rates often stayed frozen far below what was required to pay for legally mandated expenditures like tax, heating oil, and maintenance. No one would buy a guaranteed money loser apartment building, so owners only choices were to walk away in bankruptcy, or burn it down for insurance.
The fires ravaged swathes of the South Bronx and Coney Island, leaving some neighborhoods looking like burned out cities from WWII.
If you started out with a really low rent, you were fine in rent control, with a 7% increase a year. I had a huge studio across from the Morgan mansion and soon found it getting out of my range.
I moved in with roommates. Disaster. Tried it again. Disaster. Now happily in rent stabilization for the past 40 years. Don’t ask.
I hear about lots of scams. I wonder why people talk about them. It’s like they’re bragging!
The scams are run by the people with the sublease as well as the subletters. Common one: Act like a rube and a dope. Agree to the rent you are charged and seem delighted with it. Immediately upon signing, get in touch with the state agency that handles these things and find out what rent your apartment dweller is paying. When you find out it’s a fraction of what it’s supposed to be judging by your own share, you are able to live rent-free for months and months while your apartment holder tries to evict you. You can get in touch with the landlord for further leverage.
Of course if you do this you have to be careful that you are dealing with a nonviolent apartment holder.