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An uptown woman is being sued by the real estate company that owns her apartment for a defamatory tweet the woman put up on her public Twitter account. Amanda Bonnen allegedly tweeted on May 12, "Who said sleeping in a moldy apartment was bad for you? Horizon realty thinks it's okay." Now Horizon Group Management says that statement has caused harm to their reputation and they're suing for more than $50,000 in damages. [CBS 2]
Update: Thanks to commenter "moneyries" for pointing us to the Sun-Times article that quotes Jeffrey Michael, one of the owners of Horizon, as saying, "We're a sue first, ask questions later kind of an organization."
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"We're a sue first, ask questions later kind of an organization," he said, noting that the company manages 1,500 apartments in Chicago and has a good reputation it wants to preserve.
[Via Chicago Sun Times]
Isn't that hilarious? GREAT PR for your company, there, chief.
How utterly ridiculous and shameless. I hope she countersues their asses.
I'll make sure I never do business with New Horizon Group Management. Ever.
All this has done is make them look like landlords from hell.
If I get an apartment with these people can I reasonably expect them to monitor my comments on the internet?
Absolutely classic. Nothing could be better for a landlord's reputation than to be known as a "sue first, ask questions later" kinda guy! :)
Does this mean business can sue people who review them negatively on, say, Yelp? Horizon's not doing so well over there, either. http://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=horizon+group&ns=1&rpp=10&find_loc=Chicago%2C+IL
1. Why are they monitoring tweets from their renters in the first place? That's really, really creepy.
2. You can't sue over things that are true!
3. I know what real estate firm I'll be avoiding in the future.
Usually I'm of the mind that if you post something on the net you're responsible for it. Don't share something unless you're ready to deal with it. Hence my fear of Matilda showing up one day with a cricket bat.
But this is just wonderful, wonderful FAIL. Rather than contact her, address the problem and move on, they're going to sue her, get WAY more than 50 grand in bad publicity and likely expose whatever shenanigans she was complaining about in the first place to further scrutiny. Well done.
Also, were they monitoring twitter for their company's name? Meaning they've heard of customer outreach, and still do this? Marvelous!
And yeah, Horizon Realty, I'm remembering that as a name to avoid. Dopes.
Hahaha... cricket bat, nice!
Should be an easy case to decide, no? Is there mold or isn't there? Unless there was a clause in her lease stipulating she can't post comments about her apartment on Twitter, which I'm doubting.
Horizon Realty is getting so much bad press for this... way more so than had then remained between Ms. Bonnen and the 20 or so people who followed her at the time. And even scarier than the lack of addressing mold issues is the "We're a sue first, ask questions later kind of an organization." Way to make people even more leery of renting from you -- that's just so reassuring to potential tenants should any issues arise!
The smart companies respond positively when they come across complaints about their product/service on places like Twitter. I posted a complaint about my DSL service, got a tweet back and somebody who helped resolve my problem quickly without the usual sitting on hold and dealing with suspect tech support.
Exactly! A company I did work for over the winter had an intern, paid actually, who did all their "social networking" presence stuff. He'd just check facebook/twitter/digg/reddit/tumblr and rss feeds looking for the company's name or even their local industry and getting int touch with people complaining or complimenting. Sending out a $100 dollar credit to a guy who wrote a 1000+ word blog on how much he loved their company got the compnay listed on dozens of sites and brought in dozens of new customers.
Look at Zappos.com as another model.
Wow, also never renting with Horizon, ever! We looked at one of their properties a few months back and it seemed quite well maintained, though overpriced. It's interesting how innocuous this twitter post was, compared to the negative reviews they already had on yelp. Seemingly every property management agency in this city has negative yelp reviews and I'm pretty shocked at how Horizon reacted to one comment over mold.
Also, the "sue first, ask questions later quote"---somebody get these people some PR training soon! Very much hope this doesn't turn into a paperwork nightmare for the former tenant.
Just noticed that "Horizon Realty" has made to the top 10 trending topics on Twitter today as a result of this story... bet they didn't as a result of the original negative tweet. Corporate name chance in 3...2...1...
I noticed that too and they're getting ripped to threads. It's fabuloso!
Moving to the city next month and just started my apartment search. Good to know who not to rent from....
"Sue first ask questions later?" I think somebody should look into this company for fraud and abuse of the legal system.
I hope the apartment renter also counter-sues Horizon and she wins.
Horizon should sue themselves out of business for causing harm by filing a frivolous lawsuit against a private citizen and ruining their own reputation by slandering themselves.Idiots.
As the saga continues and the story unfolds...
Horizon just issued a press release:
http://tinyurl.com/lygxhu
Wow, a PRESS RELEASE.
Why not just etch it in stone or have the town crier go about ye olde towne with the news?
By the time they faxed (not e-mailed) that off the message was topping twitter and digg. How many thousands of young renters in Chicago just heard of Horizon rentals for the first time as "the company that sued someone over a tweet". Dumb old people.
Corporate name change is definitely possible.
I wouldn't be surprised if Horizon is also an "arbitrarily withold all or a portion of a tenant's security deposit when they move out" kinda company too.