A
amyinohio
Guest
What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? Ohio
Is it considered defamation if your landlord contacts a neighbor or co-worker without your consent because she didn't realize that you had made a payment, even if you had?
Here is the entire story ----
I have a letter that I wrote to my landlord after we agreed that my payments would be direct deposited by my employer to save us both time and trouble. In this letter I dictated when and what she should expect to be deposited into her account on a bi-weekly basis and I wrote that if a problem should arise because of her bank or my employer she could not hold me liable for any late fees or consider me in default on my lease. I sent this letter to her via UPS and have the tracking number to confirm her reciept.
Three weeks ago she told me that she hasn't recieved any payments over this three month period. I am working with my employer and her bank to correct this issue. I made other arrangements for my current payments to her verbally over the phone. On my next check I delivered a money order for the amount owed that week as we had agreed.
Last week she called my husband's work and spoke to a co-worker of his. She told this co-worker that we needed to contact her about our payments. Because she didn't get into details - or at least he didn't tell us anything more descriptive than that, I let it pass thinking she just forgot. (she is almost 80 years old) I contacted her and reiterated our situation and our verbal agreement. She acknowledged our conversation and was still in agreement with our plan of action.
Yesterday she contacted my neighbor at his place of employment and asked that he contact us about our payments and said that if we didn't show up with payment to consider this our three day notice. She then called him back about 15 mins later and asked if he had contacted us yet.
My neighbor has done some repair work for her in the past as an independant contractor but is not employed by her to manage her properties.
I had made all the necessary payments as per our verbal conversations and she didn't have any reason to contact me. She also had my work number as a means to reach me direclty, but didn't try to.
So I want to know if this is grounds for a possible law suit against her for defamation of character because she had no right or reason to contact my neighbor nor did she have our permission. He is not listed as a reference or emergency contact on our lease agreement. And because we were not at fault this has impaired our relationship with our neighbor and because we live in a small town this could impair our relationship with other peers as "gossip" could start if she calls anyone else.
I have checked the THE FAIR DEBT COLLECTION PRACTICES ACT and it states that she is not permitted to do this in Section 805 (b). Also it states in Section 806 (5) "engaging any person in telephone conversation repeatedly or continuously with intent to annoy, abuse, or harass any person at the called number" is illegal - in my perspective she is doing this as well.
On a side note, I am just verifing that I am correct and if she should persist in this manner I have the law behind me to make her stop. I am not immediately going to go to a lawyer and sue. I like her very much on a personal level however her attitude during this situation has left me blindsided.
Is it considered defamation if your landlord contacts a neighbor or co-worker without your consent because she didn't realize that you had made a payment, even if you had?
Here is the entire story ----
I have a letter that I wrote to my landlord after we agreed that my payments would be direct deposited by my employer to save us both time and trouble. In this letter I dictated when and what she should expect to be deposited into her account on a bi-weekly basis and I wrote that if a problem should arise because of her bank or my employer she could not hold me liable for any late fees or consider me in default on my lease. I sent this letter to her via UPS and have the tracking number to confirm her reciept.
Three weeks ago she told me that she hasn't recieved any payments over this three month period. I am working with my employer and her bank to correct this issue. I made other arrangements for my current payments to her verbally over the phone. On my next check I delivered a money order for the amount owed that week as we had agreed.
Last week she called my husband's work and spoke to a co-worker of his. She told this co-worker that we needed to contact her about our payments. Because she didn't get into details - or at least he didn't tell us anything more descriptive than that, I let it pass thinking she just forgot. (she is almost 80 years old) I contacted her and reiterated our situation and our verbal agreement. She acknowledged our conversation and was still in agreement with our plan of action.
Yesterday she contacted my neighbor at his place of employment and asked that he contact us about our payments and said that if we didn't show up with payment to consider this our three day notice. She then called him back about 15 mins later and asked if he had contacted us yet.
My neighbor has done some repair work for her in the past as an independant contractor but is not employed by her to manage her properties.
I had made all the necessary payments as per our verbal conversations and she didn't have any reason to contact me. She also had my work number as a means to reach me direclty, but didn't try to.
So I want to know if this is grounds for a possible law suit against her for defamation of character because she had no right or reason to contact my neighbor nor did she have our permission. He is not listed as a reference or emergency contact on our lease agreement. And because we were not at fault this has impaired our relationship with our neighbor and because we live in a small town this could impair our relationship with other peers as "gossip" could start if she calls anyone else.
I have checked the THE FAIR DEBT COLLECTION PRACTICES ACT and it states that she is not permitted to do this in Section 805 (b). Also it states in Section 806 (5) "engaging any person in telephone conversation repeatedly or continuously with intent to annoy, abuse, or harass any person at the called number" is illegal - in my perspective she is doing this as well.
On a side note, I am just verifing that I am correct and if she should persist in this manner I have the law behind me to make her stop. I am not immediately going to go to a lawyer and sue. I like her very much on a personal level however her attitude during this situation has left me blindsided.
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