Sometimes your apartment might have its own Facebook page. The reason for this? Maybe the building’s management wants to use the Facebook page to announce events, or to announce upcoming maintenance work ahead of time, and so on, but usually tenants are never forced to like the page or accept friend requests.
Unfortunately that does not seem to be the case for the City Park Apartments in Salt Lake City, Utah, where according to a report from KSL-TV (via CNET), it seems that tenants of the building have received notices stuck to their doors stating that they had 5 days to “friend” the building’s Facebook page or be in breach of their lease. This is despite the fact that tenants had already signed their lease, meaning that introducing a change in the contract should not be possible, at least not as long as the current contract is running.
There are several issues here, as pointed out by Zachary Myers who is an attorney that specializes in tenant rights. According to Myers, “The biggest issue that I have with it is that it seems to be discriminatory against elderly individuals and disabled individuals who are unable to utilize an online presence such as Facebook.”
However as if being forced to friend/like the building’s Facebook wasn’t enough, the memo also stated that the building’s owners have the right to post photos of the tenants and/or their visitors on the Facebook page as well, although we’re not sure why. Naturally some tenants are upset as this is a violation of their privacy.
So far the building’s Facebook page has been hit with negative reviews left by people who don’t actually stay there, but who care enough about what they’re doing to speak up about it.