RENTAL DOUBTS

After I put a deposit on an apartment, I learned that housing groups labeled the owner "New York's Most Abusive Landlord" for using rough tactics like cutting off water and heat to get rid of rent-controlled tenants. I find these tactics immoral, but I wouldn't face them: I'd be paying much more for a renovated apartment. Is it ethical to take the place? -- Sebastian, Brooklyn, N.Y.

"Behind every great apartment there is a great crime," as Balzac did not write, not exactly, not about New York real estate. Your apartment's history may be ugly, but you are not obliged to reject it on that account.

I admire the reluctance to profit from a landlord's apparent thuggery. But to forswear this apartment after the previous tenants have been ousted cannot help them or deliver a reproach to the landlord or discourage other landlords from acting ...