EX tenant posting my name PErsonal info on CRAiglist

[Nina Gibilaro]

I have an EX tenant posting my personal info on Craigslist what can i do about this ??

Tenant from HELL,  

These renter moved in in may of 2014 , I even let them move in early so they could take there time moving there stuff into the home ,

the first of June then rent was LATE, on the 2nd  of June i received a phone call from the husband that the AC wasn't working well. and there was a leak in the AC closet due to bad weather , (Roof was redone two month prior to tenants move in ) On June 3rd  , myself , 1 roofer and a electrician went to the home in the morning to check it out ,

yes there was a lite drop that we fixed on the spot the AC was fine . everything was fine we left .

That night still no rent deposit for June in my bank account , so I called (no answer ) , texted, and Sent an email in that order ( this is how the tenant wanted it done ) , regarding Junes rent and explaining a late fee if not received the following day by 5pm .

a few minutes later i receive a text message from the wife telling me her husband was going to call me i said ok , he called me from a blocked number so they can record our phone call, (there was an echo when i spoke only ) they wanted to discuss how much rent they are willing to pay for June , they wanted me to pay a hotel bill because they couldn't stay in the home because of the leak ( which is all the way by the kitchen and no where near any bedrooms ) plus pain and suffering  bringing the rent down to around $550 (rent is $1050 a month)  of course i said no and explained to them that them staying in a hotel was there choice and the home was fine .  on the phone the husband was trying to persuade me to say i would pay for hotel bill it was crazy , 

that was the end of the call , the next day still no rent in the bank account  ( I knew there wouldn't be ) so i called , texted and emailed tenants again , regarding the rent and late fee , Granted I'm working everyday and dealing with these lovely people as well :)

wife starts sending me nasty text message  and I replied as nice and polite as possible , no matter what always keeping my cool, she starts complaining about the AC not working again and the kitchen being cold and he room being hot , (oh one thing I forgot to say , in my lease agreement tenant must take care of there own lawn ) lawn was never cut and there where weeds in the front and backyard (its Florida and it rains alot) i offered to mow the lawn while i was there the day before  (but the lawn mower wasn't working ,or was out of gas ,

 during my phone conversation with the women with her calling me all kinds of names and telling me she recorded out conversation about the hotel bill  and screaming at me like a child , I told her she had three options,

1.pay the rent plus the fee

2.Get Evicted

3. move out on there own free will with in 1 week and we will call it even .

The tenant then says in a nice voice i never said i wanted to move out . i told her i have complied with all her request regarding the house and yet she still hasn't made any effort to pay the rent at all. tenant says her husband will call me later ,

later that night i spoke with her husband who told me he had to call me from his other phone (the recorded line) I told him no and we speak now , I had it with these people I was done trying to work with them , .

tenants agreed to move out in one week , one week later they called me and asked for another day , I told them ok . on the move out day , I pulled up to the house with two witnesses who are also people who work for me , and had them change the locks and check all the   just in case this women tried to pull anything , i had a release of possession form tenant was to sign , she wouldn't sign it , I also brought a copy of the lease  that they signed  ( in the lease it says if tenants breaks lease then they don't get there deposit back , ( house was kinda clean but there was trash all over the side of the house and the grass still wasn't cut, the now ex tenants started screaming at me about how she wasn't leaving with out her deposit , I told her okay , so I called the police and waited outside for them , they came and where kinda on her side until she started screaming at me all the time not arguing with her I can see she has some kinda issues , the cops tell her she choice to move out , but that she could still have a key because she didn't  sign that form i gave her , it was a catch 22 in my book , we did come in an agreement , she signed a form from the cops a no trespassing form and i agreed to give her $600 ( best $600 I ever spent to rid my life of this horrible person) when all was done we went to the bank and I got a cashier check ( which is the same as cash its just a record for me ) I handed her the check and she was all nasty I walked away, i didn't care what she said I want to clean the house up and screen better next time around .

later that day i got emails , text message and voice mails from this women calling me names and basically just incriminating herself me , she went as far to five me her new address so that i can send her the remainder of her deposit ! and that she was taking me to court , I'm not kidding !

I told her to stop calling me , i called the cops they couldn't do anything until she contacted me again, well 2 weeks go by she doesn't bother me   , between this time I'm trying to get this house she lived in rented out , and for some reason I'm not getting any hits , or calls nothing , and if i do people cancel or don't show up , i feel somethings fishy here ,

So I do a search on Craigslist , juts to see if anythings for rent in the area my home is in , and what do i find this women has posted my home with a long message about me , my full name , my home address and 3 other homes i own there address ( which tenants live at) , my company name  and my phone number , and she posted it three time and flagged my ADDS she also wrote in her message how I'm a slumlord , and switched the whole story around . I was shocked isn't this against the law ??? what can I do about this ??  

I called the police in that town and they told me to come in with the printed out adds on Craigslist , This is all in Florida by the way , 

What can I do ?? help ! Thanks Nina

[Rick H.]

1) Time is on your side. She'll eventually forget to post or tire of her issues with you. 

2) Your job is not to do anything stupid like respond and keep the argument going, which is like putting fuel on a fire

3) This is a great argument for doing business (like renting) in the name of a business or corp entity so that your personal info isn't at risk. If you made your personal info available to her, as TV shrink would ask, "What were you thinking?"

4) You will occasionally get tenants who turn out to be (or turn into) sick people. You didn't make them sick, however don't give them more free rent (in your mind) and learn what you can from the experience. Your long posts tells me you have lots to learn about land lording.

5) If need be, resist advertising in CL for a week or two and let things cool down. Next month, this will just be a memory. Hopefully you'll be able to laugh about it.