We are very careful about our online presence.

As housing providers all of us must deny some applicants and evict some residents. Add this to the simple fact that people do not like to be held accountable for their actions. We ALL know that some people are down right wackos online!

So we occasionally get negative comments, usually from evictees and amazingly from people we have never rented to!

We had one person who was particularly vengeful and repetitive until my atty wrote them a bulldog letter.

Today I found this. Wonder if we could use it to halt some cyberbullies?

BRAD

From a law office website:

"Criminal Harassment: Stalking

Someone who uses an electronic device to threaten or stalk another person commits a more serious crime. Under Indiana law, it is a Level 6 felony for to stalk another person or make a threat intended to cause the victim to reasonably fear sexual battery, serious bodily injury, or death. (Ind. Code Ann. § 35-45-10-5.)

Indiana law defines “stalking” as:

a knowing or intentional course of conduct

involving repeated or continuous harassment

that would cause a reasonable person to feel terrorized, frightened, intimidated, or threatened, and

that actually does cause the victim to feel that way. (Ind. Code Ann. § 35-45-10-1.)

Cyberbullying Punishment

A person convicted of Level 6 felony stalking faces imprisonment of six months to two and a half years, a fine of up to $10,000, or both. (Ind. Code Ann. § 35-50-2-7.)"

So, are you suggesting that you might feel "terrorized, frightened, intimidated, or threatened" by a negative review or threats of negative social media posts?

I mean, sure, if someone threatens violence or something, i get it. But this post seems to mainly be about negative reviews or threads of social media posts. I'm not convinced that fits the requirement of feeling "terrorized, frightened, intimidated, or threatened."

I know the right likes to throw "snowflake" around, but it seems to me that you'd really have to be a "snowflake" to feel "terrorized" by a negative social media post...

- John...

I think having a law on the books with the possibility

of jail time is enough meat for a nasty atty letter. In my case the letter did the trick.

Something I’ve learned the hard and expensive way - court is not about right or wrong or fairness or sometimes the law. It’s about which atty can sell the judge on his/her version of the story.

So you have an attorney write a letter threatening them for something that you admit that they didn't really do?

I mean, sure, that might work. It's just not my style, I guess. I'm not going to lie and pretend that I feel "threatened" by a negative social media post. But to each their own.

- John...

Had a couple apply with a "service dog" and claimed their child had autism. Smelled a rat when the child was far more outgoing and personable than most adults. Then I met the dog and it wasn't trained at all, zero.

Took an app and screened them anyway since those are protected class issues. Turns out they lied on the application and had legal issues regarding "animals" and "pets" still open in Florida among other things.

Sent the "sorry we were unable to approve your application". Dude became unhinged. Demanded to know why they were declined. Numerous phone calls until I blocked him. Then he went on our social media ad and kept posting DO NOT RENT he will steal your application money! etc... Got his friends to chime in.

All I could do was say "privacy laws prevent me from disclosing any information to protect you"

He demanded a copy of "his credit report he paid for". Credit was not the reason he was declined. He was declined for lying on his app and unverifiable information on the app.

He finally lost steam a couple days later when one of his friends posted " I looked it up, they really are not allowed to disclose any information."

Now if only, someone would make it a crime to steal housing without paying and destroying someone else's property - whether you live there, or not.

Hammer: Be careful. You clearly are not an expert on Autism, and are treading very close to trouble saying things like that. You are not qualified (or legally allowed)to determine if a person has a disability.

My child has HFA (high-functioning autism)- so I do know a little.

It is a spectrum disorder, which means it can be manifested in many different ways in different people.

At its core, it is a communication disorder.

Some seem very quiet and "shy". Others talk incessantly (perhaps the one you met?). Either way, it is "inappropriate" social skills. And there is a LOT more to it.

This is the example of why -can you work with me- seldom works, when the court asks me if I want to mediate this case I tell them they have the process spelled incorrectly -it is meditate- we are simply meditating why the original agreement is not working, that is why we come to court.

If you threaten legal action for every bad review, it makes me think that you get enough bad reviews to have a legal staff devoted to dealing with them. It would give credibility to the negative reviews in my book. Just let it go, respond nicely and out the ones that were never tenants by saying "this commenter was never a tenant."

Yea, this was not just a bad review.

This gal had 56 posts making claims about me personally and our business...problem was I never had ANY business with her. All made up lies. She was looney tunes.

This was on a local public amateur citywide news FB page with thousands of subscribers, and we lost a few new leases where people read it and backed out, citing the FB thread as their reason. Took months for folks to stop asking about it. It did harm our business.

I have learned to never respond online to bullies. It only fuels their fire.

Basically the atty letter was CEASE AND DESIST, and REMOVE your posts or face legal action for harassment.

A cop once explained to me "I don't have to use my gun because it usually does it's job by just being seen on my belt. People back off."

BRAD