Landlord Sues Tenants For Giving Him A 1-Star Review
fizkes | Shutterstock A Wisconsin couple posted what they felt was a justified review for their landlord on Google, and are now facing legal consequences for it.
In a world where it sometimes feels like business owners and consumers are locked in some kind of power struggle, online reviews can seem like one of the only ways to fight back. Statistics show that they’re very effective, with 77% of consumers choosing to pass over businesses with bad reviews. Still, no one thinks leaving a bad review is going to come back to haunt them in some way.
A landlord accused his tenants of defamation for what they insisted was telling the truth.
Eric Magnuson and Elizabeth Sargent have lived in the Bay Village Townhomes in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, since 2023, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. After about a year there, they started to feel like their landlord, David Karademas, who owns Karademas Management, was going a bit too far.
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The couple said they received emails letting them know they needed to pay fees they had not been informed of previously, including a $100 fine if they didn’t move their car by 9 a.m. when there were more than two inches of snow on the ground. After one snowstorm, Magnuson posted a review under a fake name, calling his landlord “sleazy” and “truly awful” for attempting to fine them even though they had moved their car in time.
Karademas replied to the review, saying that the fact “rules are enforced” shouldn’t bother them, and named Magnuson and Sargent. This led to some vitriolic back-and-forth between Magnuson and Karademas, with Magnuson claiming he engaged in “retaliatory doxxing.”
This prompted the landlord, who is also a lawyer, to sue the husband and wife.
He told Magnuson he needed to remove the bad reviews and sign a non-disparagement agreement. He deleted the reviews but refused to sign, which led Karademas to file a defamation lawsuit.
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His argument is that Magnuson lied in his reviews and used them to try to get out of his lease, which is a form of extortion. In his words, this “can nullify the First Amendment protections” that Magnuson and his wife have.
Now, both parties are waiting to see what happens next with the case. Magnuson and Sargent filed a motion to have it dismissed, but a judge has yet to rule on that. They said they are spending their savings on legal representation.
Karademas will probably have a hard time proving defamation occurred, but the law isn’t on the couple’s side.
According to the Cornell Legal Information Institute, each state has its own standards that must be met for defamation, but it’s generally considered “a statement that injures a third party’s reputation.”
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel spoke to attorney and First Amendment specialist Alex Morey, who said that the landlord would have to prove that Magnuson’s review actually hurt his business. “Is there a voicemail that says, ‘I saw this review online, and now I don’t want to work with you?’ Something trackable?” he asked. If Karademas has any such evidence, he hasn’t shared it yet.
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Unfortunately, Wisconsin is one of only 11 states in the U.S. that doesn’t have an anti-SLAPP law, which stands for “strategic lawsuits against public participation.” The Freedom Forum described these as “laws [that] are designed to protect free speech from being threatened or shut down by people on the receiving end of critical speech.” If Wisconsin had an anti-SLAPP law, Magnuson and Sargent might have an easier time getting the case dismissed, although it’s still not a guarantee.
The Freedom Forum also said that the First Amendment generally protects reviews that contain factual information and a personal opinion, whether it’s positive or negative. But people can end up really splitting hairs when it comes to defamation laws, so this case probably isn’t going away anytime soon, no matter how ridiculous it is.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.
