These days, the Internet is allowing for people to voice their concerns about where they live in a whole new way. Apartment hunting websites often have customer feedback sections that allow residents and former residents to leave comments on how great or how terrible their experience living there was. Some folks are taking things even farther by starting their own website or blog that is critical of their current apartment. Some buildings use the blog as a way to communicate with their landlord and to lodge complaints and to keep track of how long things take to get fixed. While this can be a galvanizing idea that brings a building or complexes population together, there are some legal pitfalls you need to look out for, first.
If you are running the site and it is registered in your name, you are legally responsible for all of the content that goes on it, which means that if an angry tenant leaves a comment that is untrue or libels someone such as your landlord, you can get sued. The site will require around the clock watching just in case an angry tenant happens to go off, and if you have a few hundred people posting on your blog, it can turn into a full time job.
A smart alternative is to have everyone in your building email you with their problems or complaints and then you can talk to your landlord either in person or over the phone and express these issues. This way, you are acting like a liaison and ensuring that all of the complains in your building are being heard, and you aren’t risking the chance that you may libel someone in the process. Technology can be an incredible boost for communication and for holding people responsible, but it can also turn on you like an angry rattlesnake if you don’t watch out.
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