Like us on Facebook or you’re in breach of your lease
Hey! I’ve got a great idea! We’re getting all these negative reviews about our apartments on Google and Yelp. Things about rats and drugs and general yuckiness. But I know how to stop it. Let’s require everyone to like us on Facebook! We can use their pictures of them having fun and show potential residents what a great place this is. Oh, and we make them stop posting negative stuff about us. And, if they do, we kick them out! Brilliant!
Sounds downright silly, doesn’t it? But that’s just about what happened at the City Park Apartments in Salt Lake City, Utah. They found a piece of paper stuck to the doors, according to KSL-TV, with the headline “Facebook Addendum.”
The Addendum let residents know they had five days to friend the apartment complex on Facebook or they’d be “in breach” of their lease. It also stated that no negative posts about the complex would be allowed… and they could take pictures you post and use them on their Facebook page.
As you can imagine, residents weren’t happy.
“I don’t want to be forced to be someone’s friend and be threatened to break my lease because of that.” — Jason Ring on KSL.com
Whether any of this would be enforceable seems unlikely. And, oh, people are pretty ticked off about it. Some took to Google Reviews to make it public.
Whoever is advising that apartment complex on social media is, to put it bluntly, an idiot. Using such a heavy-handed approach could only inspire people to react. And they have. Facebook visitors have started to leave critical messages on the apartment complexes Facebook page.
Some of the national newspapers and TV stations have started to pick up on the story. That won’t help City Park.
While there’s been no public response from the apartment owners through the media, it does appear the apartment complex is backing off.
They posted this in response to one of the posters on Google:
“We are by no means forcing anyone to sign the Facebook Addendum, it is optional and it is left at the discretion of every resident to want to do so. We respect the privacy of every one of our residents here at City Park.” — City Park Apartments on Google Reviews
