Addressing Specific Points to an Individual

[stephenB]

My question involves defamation in the state of: Florida.

We have some tenants who are proving a nightmare, led by one individual who is just an oily and nasty little troublemaker hellbent on making their tenure at the property a misery for us. We went out on a limb to give these guys the lease yet it has backfired on us, particularly given that the others in the house have deferred to this particular individual and allowed him to act as the ringmaster to all that has transpired since they moved in.

The latest episode involves the head of the HOA in the neighborhood calling us angrily last week to inform us that the lawns were out of control. I went over there and discovered they'd allowed a veritable jungle to take over, and when my wife emailed the tenants about our concerns we received a typically snotty response along the lines of the yard being weeds, not grass, that they might have more inclination to cut it all down if we laid down the fresh sod we've spoken of, etc etc, as well as laying on the typical kind of deflection people like this indulge in to try and gain some ground back. As we have gone to some lengths to remind them of their obligations to the lease, and specifically reminded them of the problems with the HOA only 6 weeks ago when a similar issue with the lawn first came to the fore, we have zero doubt that this latest stunt was contrived specifically with malicious intent involved (IE earning the ire of the HOA maven involved) though of course we can't prove it.

My wife and I have put up with a ton of crap from these guys and kept on holding to the thought that we only have to put up with them until the end of the year, at which point we simply won't renew the lease, but this latest episode, including the snotty email we received from this individual, really got me steamed, and I've written a 10 page letter answering his odious behavior, false accusations, and generally rude tone with an outline on all the work we've done to the house since we purchased it, the specific issues we've had with them, and a basic outline on the narcissistic, disingenuous, and schadenfreude personality we're having to deal with.

Basically speaking, if I wish to call a spade a spade where this individual is concerned I'm not transgressing any legalities, am I, particularly as we're only sharing the note with him, and not the other individuals he shares the house with? There's nothing threatening in the letter - other than a reminder of their legal obligations and liabilities - I'm merely rebuffing his outrageously false accusations in the kind of sarcastic tone they deserve, outlining his detestable behavior and personality, and giving pretty clear reasons why he's destroyed any chance of our renewing the lease. I don't see anything defamatory or libelous in doing so, as I'm only speaking the truth and not going public with the letter. Even if I did go public I don't think he'd have a leg to stand on, but that's another matter. And if we were to land in court at some point, I don't think there's a single thing in the document that we couldn't stand by. Any thoughts?

Thanks.

[Mr. Knowitall]

If you're asking whether you can be sued for defamation for writing a ten page letter to somebody telling him that he's a nasty person, sharing that letter with no one else, no you cannot because to constitute defamation the remarks must be published to a third party.

My suggestion, though, would be to write your ten, twenty, thirty page tirade to get it out of your system, then write a polite half-page letter addressing your actual concerns. At best, the former is going to be "circular filed", at worst it will worsen the situation or be used in a later attempt to embarrass or discredit you.

[stephenB]

Actually, you're on point regard getting it off my system, which is why I also handed it to my wife to chip away at and tone down to her liking once I'd finished venting. She is after all the actual owner of the house - I'm just the resident slave who does all the work on the place and has to deal with the bulk of the crap from these guys. Note though that 9 3/4 of the pages actually deal with issues we've had and presently are having, while the remainder goes to what I think of the individual personally.

The mistake we made was in letting them know early on that we were obviously not going to renew the lease because of the issues we were dealing with, which I guess turned into an open invitation to just go hell for leather seeing as they had nothing to lose.

Still, everything I've written down has been from the perspective of how it might be viewed were it come back and haunt us in a legal situation, and nothing in it would give cause for concern - except to the other party. Frankly I think he'd be too embarrassed and sensitive to the contents to want to see it surface in court. For example, at one point when he was one amongst many trying to entice us to rent the place to him, he offered via email to pay in excess of the rental figure we'd advertised. We also discovered early on that our agent had completely underestimated how much the place was worth on the rental market and could have tacked on another two or three hundred dollars to the monthly figure. In either instance we just felt it would have been highly unethical to change tack and go over what we had advertised the property for, even though we realized we'd made a mistake. If that signifies that we have integrity, or are plain stupid, I don't know. My wife and I just have a pretty old fashioned sense of values, which we don't really think works to our advantage in situations like this.

Thank you for your input. It's appreciated.