Florida Apartment Complex Threatens Tenants With $10,000 Fine For Bad Reviews Online

[Miles Archer]

Florida Apartment Complex Threatens Tenants With $10,000 Fine For Bad Reviews Online

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/11/windermere-cay-yelp-review-10k-fine_n_6844592.html

A Florida apartment complex is under fire after management forced new tenants to sign a "social media addendum" that threatened a fine of $10,000 if they gave the place a bad review online, Ars Technica reports. The addendum, which went viral Tuesday after the Windermere Cay complex in Winter Garden started handing it out, also forces tenants to sign away their rights to any photos, reviews or other material about the complex posted online:



“Applicant will refrain from directly or indirectly publishing or airing negative commentary regarding the Unit, Owner, property or the apartments,” the addendum reads. “This means that Applicant shall not post negative commentary or reviews on Yelp!, Apartment Ratings, Facebook, or any other website or Internet-based publication or blog."

Before Tuesday, few people had reviewed Windermere Cay. By the end of the day, however, a lot of people had reviewed the place. Things are not going well for the apartment complex online.

[L0oniX]

1. I'm guessing that Huffingtonpost will not be paying a fine.

[Enrique]

2. i predict this will not improve their reviews

[leveymg]

3. Need a federal law with teeth that protects online expression.

No employer, housing provider, vendor, or service provider should be permitted to discriminate against any person for exercising his/her Constitutionally-protected expression of opinion.

[Oktober]

4. I try to imagine their decision making process...

How did they think this would go well?

[Agschmid]

5. Typically this backfires... just sayin'

[frazzled]

13. It already did: check out hysterical Yelp posts

A sea of one-star reviews from all over the country.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/11/windermere-cay-yelp-review-10k-fine_n_6844592.html

My favorite is short and sweet:


3/11/2015

arstechnica.com/tech-pol…

You can't make this shit up. Talk about a backfire! Don't fuck with the internet.

[Agschmid]

14. Oh the Internet...

[Systematic Chaos]

16. It will ALL be gone in three days, I promise you.

I joined an attempt to slam a business on Yelp which was guilty of some type of blatant racism or something like that, which I also learned about here on the DU.

My bad Yelp review was gone in a matter of a day or two with the excuse that my physical location meant I obviously never could have visited the business (oh, really? what the fuck about travel??) and so it didn't count.

I could not post another one, and all the other bad reviews against the shitty business owner were likewise gone.

If people want to hurt this apartment complex then they need to get a LOT more risky and balls-out than some Yelp and similar review sites. Just saying.

[frazzled]

17. The apt. management already rescinded the amendment clause

So no need to worry about these posts disappearing.

[Systematic Chaos]

19. My god? You think?!? They kind of had to!

They charge a grand or more for a lousy one bedroom apartment, so they're pretty upscale. If they can't properly maintain the places and keep tenants happy charging that kind of rent, then they need to close down and sell their properties to somebody who knows what the fuck they're doing!

They never needed that addendum if they're doing their jobs right, the morons....

[Xithras]

18. The other downside to that...

...is that Yelp will flag your account once you post multiple false reviews, and will automatically and PERMANENTLY downgrade your reviews after that. I used my original Yelp account profusely until a few years ago, when I posted a bunch of junk reviews for two companies that were anti-LGBT (one was a wedding dress shop, and the other a bakery). Yelp removed my reviews and flagged the account. I noticed a few months later that my legitimate reviews were all getting dropped into the "These Reviews Are Not Recommended" category and that nobody was seeing them. Apparently my two fake reviews had cancelled out my years of real reviews, and my reviews were no longer considered trustworthy by the site.

I ended up just rolling a new Yelp account and starting over.

[lpbk2713]

6. Harrassment and intimidation could bite them in the ass.

And I hope it does. They deserve it.

[NaturalHigh]

7. Kicked for exposure.

The more people who know about this the better.

[steve2470]

8. Talk about the Streisand effect!

The company and its lawyers are idiots. Ever heard of honey attracts more flies than vinegar ???

[niyad]

9. hmmm, obviously the complex owners KNOW that the negative reviews are warranted.

hey, owners, how about fixing what is wrong instead of punishing people for telling the truth?

sounds like they took lessons from fred phelps.

[edgineered]

10. This is 1 property of many

Greystar (link below) owns them. At one time I had applied for a position with one of their Orlando properties, whose names all begin with a W.

http://www.greystar.com/client-services/property-management/

[Systematic Chaos]

11. You can't e-mail them, so I guess that leaves flooding phone lines?

They got a million of those, too. And their MAIN office? Well, if you wanna waste your good money on postage, then that's on you.

[edgineered]

12. judging by their rental agreement requirements

one should not be surprised if their corporate lawyers filed a telecommuncations suit against unwanted callers.

EW rules!

[AZ Progressive]

15. An Apartment Nazi

Dictator wannabe...