Can I be sued for this?

[Sunnyd8877]

I live in Arizona. Long story short. I signed a lease on good faith that it would meet minimum standards for health & safety. It did not. Landlord did minimum repairs. I continued to complain and the landlord had other tenants harass me. The property is run by a big management company and I did not have the financial resources or lawyers to fight for my rights. I paid a huge early termination fee to break my lease and ended up losing around $5000.

Suing them would be a waste of time & money because they would file appeals and bury me in court costs too until I give up. (That's what I have been told they do).

I want to post a negative review online about them but I am afraid they will sue me for causing them to lose business. Can they sue me for this?

 

[LdiJ]

I live in Arizona. Long story short. I signed a lease on good faith that it would meet minimum standards for health & safety. It did not. Landlord did minimum repairs. I continued to complain and the landlord had other tenants harass me. The property is run by a big management company and I did not have the financial resources or lawyers to fight for my rights. I paid a huge early termination fee to break my lease and ended up losing around $5000.

Suing them would be a waste of time & money because they would file appeals and bury me in court costs too until I give up. (That's what I have been told they do).

I want to post a negative review online about them but I am afraid they will sue me for causing them to lose business. Can they sue me for this?

Yes, they can. Whether or not they would win is iffy. If they are stupid enough to pay big money to attorneys to appeal negative rulings then they would likely be stupid enough to sue you even if your review was totally honest and accurate.

However, if you had asked for advice BEFORE you paid that huge early termination fee, there is a chance that someone here could have helped you avoid that. Remember next time you have a legal issue of some sort to ask for advice BEFORE you do something, rather than after.

 

[quincy]

I live in Arizona. Long story short. I signed a lease on good faith that it would meet minimum standards for health & safety. It did not. Landlord did minimum repairs. I continued to complain and the landlord had other tenants harass me. The property is run by a big management company and I did not have the financial resources or lawyers to fight for my rights. I paid a huge early termination fee to break my lease and ended up losing around $5000.

Suing them would be a waste of time & money because they would file appeals and bury me in court costs too until I give up. (That's what I have been told they do).

I want to post a negative review online about them but I am afraid they will sue me for causing them to lose business. Can they sue me for this?

Yes, the property management company and/or the landlord can sue you over what you write in a negative review. Whether the company/landlord could be successful with any lawsuit depends on what you have written.

Negative reviews about goods or services or companies are fine to write. For one example of reviews written correctly, you can look at Consumer Reports. This publication rates and ranks goods and services after testing the products/services, and they do this without defaming the company that offers the goods/services. They state only facts. Consumer reviews of this sort can be valuable to consumers trying to make a smart purchasing decision.

It is not easy to write a negative review. To be legally safe, you must stick to only provable facts and pure opinions (those opinions that cannot be proven true or false). You must stick to an honest expression of your own personal experience. Those reviews that do not stick to provable facts and pure opinions and an accurate accounting of their own personal experience can be legally problematic.

Most people when writing a review tend to generalize their personal experience to comment on the business as a whole. This is a mistake. Reviews of this sort often will use terms like "never" and "always." Reviewers might expand on provable personal experiences to make the review more interesting to readers. Reviews of this sort often will use adjectives that may be too strong to reflect a situation accurately. Words might be tossed off like "slum lord" and "fraud" and "crook." What the review-writer rarely realizes is that any time a review strays from the truth and uses derogatory words to describe identifiable people or entities, the review can potentially support a defamation lawsuit.

Even if your negative review only comments honestly on your own personal experience with the company (or its goods/services) and only states provable facts and your pure opinions, nothing prevents the company from suing you anyway. Negative reviews, whether true or false, attract attention. Negative reviews can work to harm the reputation of a company. When a company's reputation is harmed, the company loses money. When a company loses money over a negative review, the company can take what has been said in the review and work to improve consumer relations - or they can consider a lawsuit against the consumer who reviewed them negatively.

One point to consider when negatively reviewing a big management company: If you intend to rent in the area again, a landlord/owner might be reluctant to rent to you. You could potentially find it difficult to find a new place to live.

 

[Sunnyd8877]

I did consult a lawyer

I consulted a lawyer at the very beginning. He kept recommending expensive tests to prove my claims. (Air quality tests). He told me hand delivered notes and voicemails from my landlord would not hold up in court so I had to endure living in the bad situation until we did things the "legally correct way." Everything he recommended sounded expensive and long drawn out. I told him I was getting retaliation from other tenants and he said that it was hard to prove that.

The early termination fee was only $1500. I also lost my $500 deposit. The rest of the costs are damages. Moving expenses, first/last months rent for a new place and hotel expenses (I will be living in a hotel for a week or two until the new place I am moving is ready).

 

[Sunnyd8877]

Attorney General?

Would it be beneficial to report this to the attorney generals office after I move out?

 

[Zigner]

The early termination fee was only $1500. I also lost my $500 deposit.

From $5,000 to $1,500 for an early termination fee? I would suggest that you not mention a WORD of this to anyone since your claims are patently false.

 

[Zigner]

Would it be beneficial to report this to the attorney generals office after I move out?

Why do you think the AG would have anything to do with this?

 

[Sunnyd8877]

Also

Many of the reviews on the website are 5 stars.. I based my decision to live here off of those reviews. Many people who live here are not happy but too afraid to say anything. Many don't have the financial resources to move. I do wonder how many of those reviews were written by people who worked here and/or their friends.

 

[Zigner]

Many of the reviews on the website are 5 stars.. I based my decision to live here off of those reviews. Many people who live here are not happy but too afraid to say anything. Many don't have the financial resources to move. I do wonder how many of those reviews were written by people who worked here and/or their friends.

Maybe none of them...maybe all of them. It's really not relevant to your situation.

 

[Sunnyd8877]

Early term

I lost my 500 deposit & 1500 in early termination fee.

I also have damaged: $300 in moving expenses. First months/last month rent at the new place $1800. I will have to stay in a hotel for at least a week: $ 550. I had to see a doctor twice because the conditions in the apartment made me sick: $120.

It all adds up.

 

[Zigner]

I lost my 500 deposit & 1500 in early termination fee.

I also have damaged: $300 in moving expenses. First months/last month rent at the new place $1800. I will have to stay in a hotel for at least a week: $ 550. I had to see a doctor twice because the conditions in the apartment made me sick: $120.

It all adds up.

Moving expenses are on you. First/Last at the new place isn't considered "damages" - you chose to move. Your choice to leave early means the hotel is on you. With no proof that the conditions in the apartment made you sick, the cost of the doctor is on you.

In other words, the only expense that is directly attributable to you breaking the lease early is the early termination fee and, *maybe* the security deposit.

Again, don't post anything about this because you are telling blatant untruths even here.

 

[Sunnyd8877]

AG consumer complaint

I want to file a complaint with the AG because I signed a lease being promised one thing and receiving something different. This is not something small like fixtures and paint. My concerns were Heath & safety concerns that were not remedied. I have rights established by the tenant/landlord act that were being infringed upon. As an average consumer I do not have the financial means to go against a large housing corporation to fight for those rights.

And neither do other people who live in that complex. The business practices do not just infringe on my rights but on the rights of many others.

People who make too much to qualify for free legal advice, but not enough to hire lawyers and fight for our rights,

 

[Sunnyd8877]

I chose to move

I chose to move because my landlord refused to fix the health and safety concerns.

 

[quincy]

Would it be beneficial to report this to the attorney generals office after I move out?

Not knowing exactly what "this" is, I cannot say if the attorney general's office would have any interest in what you experienced in your rental. If there is a question on the rental unit meeting the state's health and safety standards, the first complaint should have been to the landlord/property management company. Your second complaint (if health or safety issues were not addressed promptly or adequately by the landlord/property management company) should have been to the city/county code enforcement/health department, for an investigation into the conditions present in the rental unit or rental community.

If the problem with the unit was still not resolved, you could potentially have had a legitimate reason for breaking your lease (depending on the facts) and, with a legitimate reason for vacating the premises early, you should not have been penalized with an early termination fee or refusal by the landlord to return your deposit.

But the landlord/tenant laws in your state need to be considered. You must follow your lease terms and the laws in order to properly leave the rental premises early without penalty.

If you have moved out already and are now looking to recover your costs, you need proof to back up your claims that the property you rented did not meet the state's required minimum safety or health standards (which is what your attorney advised).

And I would avoid writing a negative review without proof of the truth of any claims you make.

 

[Sunnyd8877]

If things were different

I was at my last complex for 5 years. I moved to here to save money. The landlord refused to fix the situation. He refused to move me to a different unit. Whenever I complained I faced retaliation from other tenants. if he was willing to work with me to resolve the situation, I would have stayed and lived there years.