Management Company sues tenant for Twitter Post

According to CBS, a resident in Chicago has been sued by her management agency for posting a Tweet on Twitter accusing her management company of being OK with moldy apartments.   The suit alleges that the twitter post is a defamatory statement.

Search of the subject’s name on Twitter shows the dialogue is just starting about this subject.   Currently her name is becoming a cautionary tale among twitters, but it should be curious how the case plays out. 

From a tenant management perspective, a business should always consider the ramifications of a defamatory lawsuit.  The CBS article about the lawsuit has reached the lofty Internet heights of the Drudge Report and presumably the whole world is now aware of the situation.   Had the company done nothing the defamation (if real) would have been limited to her twitter followers.  Now with the media falling in love with Twitter and composing non-stop love puff pieces about its technology, this management firm has become a potential worldwide tweet target for an army of  tech-heavy populists.  Some public relations professionals content that even bad news is good news (but they might be just selling their Crisis Management capabilities)   The lawsuit might force the tenant to stop tweeting, but the unintended bad PR might sink the firm.

We all have horror stories about nightmare tenants; sometimes no matter how promptly you provide service and repair, your tenant will continue to complain and complain, etc.  We remember a recent decision by Sprint Wireless to cut off 300 of its own customers.   After a study of their customer relations Sprint realized that these 300 users were responsible for a huge amount of their customer service budget. By cancelling their business relationship with these customers Sprint saved money and was able to provide better customer service to their remaining millions of customer who do not hassle their customer serciceagents.  With this in mind it might be worth considering how much your nightmare tenant is costing you.

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