There is no doubting that social networking sites are a massive part of
modern life and lots of us spend time every day on Facebook, Twitter and
Linked-In, but one less obvious use for social networking sites is to use
them to interact with tenants, including chasing them when they owe you
money!
Tenants who have fallen into rent arrears or owe money for damage done to
a property can sometimes be difficult to locate if you have no forwarding
address for them. However, thanks to a recent judgement, serving legal
claims via popular social networking sites could be a new and easy way to
start a money claim.
The judge presiding over a commercial dispute ruled that Facebook could
be used as a virtual address when it proved to be difficult to locate a
former employee who had been accused of overcharging commission to his
clients. Papers had been served on the defendant’s only known previous
address, but since nobody could be certain that he still lived there, the
court was asked if the notice could be served via an active Facebook
account. Permission was granted as there was good evidence produced to
show that the defendant was a regular user of Facebook.
This important ruling could now set a precedent for money claims against
elusive tenants, allowing them to be served via popular social networking
sites (this already happens in Australia and New Zealand). And since a
judge allowed Twitter to be used to serve an injunction in a previous
case, landlords could soon be using social networking sites to claw back
money from absconding tenants.
