Landlord Requirng Facebook

[Fadeaway]

I am freaking out so bad. My anxiety is through the roof. my apartment complex was recently bought out by a new company. They are require all tennents to friend them on face book. They are saying all notices will be sent via facebook. If you do not friend them on facebook it is grounds for eviction. The notice also says that they have the right to use all pictures you post on facebook .

It was hard enough for me to get the guts to make a facebook page. I do not put any identifying information on it period. Not where I live, not my husbands name, not what school I went to, nothing. I don't even have photographs of me on there.

By doing this, every one will be able to see what apatment complex I live in. I am so terrified right now. I can not afford to move. My credit is shot and couldn't pass a rental credit check right now anyways plus their is the whole i.d. issue. Apparently it is totaly leagle in my state for them to require this.


I am shaking so hard in fear of my abuser finding me through this.

 

[anthony]

That doesn't sound right to me... I would start ringing such rental bodies and asking them. You can't force someone to friend you on FB otherwise they evict you, that is just nonsense and no way stands up in court legally.

 

[anthony]

If you want to get around this, without raising issues, then create a fake FB account with nonsense, do nothing with it... but give it to them for their records and go on living happily.

Even tell them you don't have FB... and there is no way you're legally required to have it in order to rent a property.

 

[Lucycat]

I don't know if you have access to free advice - here we have the Citizens Advice Bureau. They would tell you - for free- whether such a request is legal. I suspect it is not. You already have a tenancy agreement and they should honour that.

 

[digger]

Doesn't sound legally enforceable to me. Not everyone uses Facebook for a start. I would start with just simply saying that you don't have a Facebook account and provide them with an alternative means of contacting you, but look into the legalities of it so you have something to come back at them with if they don't like that.

 

[Suzetig]

I'd echo Anthony's advice, I'm guessing you already have your Facebook account locked down? Tell them you don't have Facebook (make sure if you give them an email addresses it's not the one linked to Facebook or your profile may come up on their page anyway), or create a false account and give them access to that.

I'm an argumentative bugger so I'd be strongly challenging the idea that they can use information (photos) posted on my Facebook for their purposes - that's a nonsense. But if you don't have the capacity to fight them on it, just work around it for now.

Hope your able to soothe the freaking out bits of you, what a rubbish place to be.

 

[digger]

Are you able to share here exactly how they've worded the requirement?

 

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I wish I had a scanner so you could read what it says @anthony I could make a fake account but a what about my name? My legal name is very unccomon. The other issue with a fake account is that they say they will be sending all notices to the facebook account. That woul dmean I woul dhave to remember to log in everyday. We do have a housing athourity here. I am going to call them in the morning.

I am trying to think rationaly about this but it is hard to think past the anxiety .

 

[Suzetig]

You could use your real name in your fake account (for them) and a shortened version/nickname on your real account ( just say that you were getting odd friend requests by way of explanation). Set your fake account up so that you get email notification of posts so you don't need to log in. It's a pain but there's a way to manage it - I understand it's hard to get past the anxiety.

 

[digger]

If you don't want to argue the legality of it with them, is your husband on the tenancy agreement too? If so, could you just use his Facebook account?

 

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It's long with a lot of stuff but this is the first paragraph.

Resident agrees to "friend" the community facebook page listed above and to maintain the community as a frined so long as the obligations under the rental agreement exist. Resident shall friend the community within 5 days of this notice. Failure to friend or remain friended shall be a breach of the residential rental agreement.

 

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@Suztig I don't want my legal name posted anywhere on line and especially not in conjunction with were I live. I use my middle name and my husbands last name, but leagally on my S.S. rental agreement and stuff it still has my ex's last name. I have worked very hard to keep certian people from finding me.

@digger, he is and he also refuses to have a facebook due to being a teacher and the risk of issues with students. Teachers have been fired for what other people have posted on their facebook.