Left bad review of letting agent - now being harassed

CheekCheek

Hi there,

Bit of an unusual scenario.

Left a negative review online for a previous letting agent (they were atrocious) and we have since been harassed by the director of the company regarding said review.This has included 6-7 phone calls, a couple of answerphone messages, a couple of emails (all in the less than a week).

My partner has spoken to them on the phone and thought this was the end of the matter. However, they don't seem to be letting up and are still emailing, questioning the validity of the review and hassling for it to be removed. It's bordering on harassment now.

Where do we stand? I am questioning them now misusing our data now (emails, phone number etc.) and am going to request they remove this from their database. However not really sure where we stand on this?

Thanks for your help.

rob404uk

would block the phone numbers and move on

nidO

Broadly, your choices are to:

Tell the person contacting you to stick it where the sun doth not shine, after which block/ignore his calls and emails and move on with your life

or

Keep records of all of his contacts with you and make a harassment complaint to the police, which will hopefully at the very least result in them dropping by his place and asking him to leave you alone.

stator

Write a formal letter of complaint to the EA listing the harassment that you are receiving and demand that they stop it.

jjlandlord

I would not rub them the wrong way. Being sued for libel is very expensive.

martinthebandit

Update your review to include details of what's occured?

Lord_Baltimore

CheekCheek wrote: »

....a negative review...

Define 'negative'.

smcmr

Check the agency's complaints policy, usually displayed on their website and follow up from there. Most complaints policies go like this:

Write a complaint to the manager, if you are not satisfied with their response then write a complaint to head office (Assuming this is a multi-branch agency) and if you are still not satisfied with the response, write a report to The Property Ombudsman who can financially compensate you.

If it really gets serious, as in you feel threatened, report the individual to the police.

Hope this helps

theartfullodger

(Assuming this is England or Wales): The law on harassment is surprisingly clear:
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1997/40/crossheading/england-and-wales

1 Prohibition of harassment.

(1) A person must not pursue a course of conduct—
(a) which amounts to harassment of another, and
(b) which he knows or ought to know amounts to harassment of the other.
(2) For the purposes of this section, the person whose course of conduct is in question ought to know that it amounts to harassment of another if a reasonable person in possession of the same information would think the course of conduct amounted to harassment of the other.
(3) Subsection (1) does not apply to a course of conduct if the person who pursued it shows—
(a) that it was pursued for the purpose of preventing or detecting crime,
(b) that it was pursued under any enactment or rule of law or to comply with any condition or requirement imposed by any person under any enactment, or
(c) that in the particular circumstances the pursuit of the course of conduct was reasonable.
2 Offence of harassment.
(1) A person who pursues a course of conduct in breach of section 1 is guilty of an offence.
(2) A person guilty of an offence under this section is liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months, or a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale, or both.

Make a log of all harassment: Write a calm, polite, but firm letter requiring them to cease & desist all harassment, noting the pattern of repeated harassment, noting it is both a civil and CRIMINAL matter. Send letter & email it also: Copy to your solicitor & make that clear in the letter.

If not fixed contact Mssrs Shelter 0808 800 4444 for advice.

Were it me I might report harassment to Police, if severe enough, getting a CRN.

However, depending on how "negative" and how damaging the review was the agency may have a defence.

I can for-see the future: Lawyers will probably make money from your wee review.

Depending on how it develops you might wish to look at The Fraud Act 2006 S4 "Fraud by abuse of position".

Cheers!

davidmcn

theartfullodger wrote: »

However, depending on how "negative" and how damaging the review was the agency may have a defence.

I can't see that harassment is likely to be deemed reasonable even if someone has libelled you.

topdaddy_2

This is harrassment, not bordering. Report them.