Beachwood Vue landlord, tenants square off in legal dispute

BEACHWOOD, OH (WOIO) - A Shaker Heights Municipal Court judge has denied a motion filed by the landlords of the Vue apartment complex in Beachwood.

The landlords claimed Dr. Chan-Yang Hsu made disparaging comments online regarding the apartment complex. The court disagreed.

The motion was filed as part of an ongoing dispute between some residents of The Vue and the management company of the complex regarding what the residents claim is poor customer service regarding their complaints about the condition of the building.

Jared Klebenow is an attorney who specializes in landlord-tenant relations, he is not involved in the case but says he is not surprised by the decision of the court,  "They did an analysis of the actual review that he posted and determined that Dr. Hsu's speech was a combination of opinion speech and factually true statements."

In landlord-tenant disputes Klebenow says it's important to have your facts right before posting anything online, "If the statements are opinion in nature and factually true they are protected by the First Amendment."

There is some value to going online with your complaints but in most cases the best course of action is contact an attorney, "Under certain circumstances speaking out on social media might start a movement, might start change, but you need to be careful that what your saying is factually true or you could find yourself in trouble," Klebenow says.

The very first course of action he says is to try and resolve your differences with your landlord one on one.

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