A Meme Is Born: Flagging CitiApartments' Craigslist Ads

Adding to CitiApartments constant woes, SFAppeal has word that the troubled real estate company has been inundated with complaints from tenants, accusing them of refusing to refund security deposits. Habitually, it seems. Ted Gullicksen of the Tenants Union says that they have "been getting '3 or 4 complaints a week" on this issue.'" What's more this withholding of funds, if true, is illegal. Which in turn Which in turn, well, sounds kind of sleazy on CitiApartments's end. (Not that they've technically done anything technically illegal. Technically.) According to Appeal, "Craigslist's terms of use declares that 'all postings...are the sole responsibility of the person from whom such Content originated.' Pretty standard TOU stuff -- but their section 7 (Conduct) states 'You agree not to post...Content that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive...' [going on to say] 'If you post Content in violation of the TOU...you agree to pay craigslist one hundred dollars ($100).'" Since CitiApartments' craigslist advertisements demand security deposits, one that "that they seem to know will not be returned would constitute a violation of [Craigslist's] TOU'" a new meme has been born. Appeal goes on to explain, "You know -- and we're certainly not advocating this, just, you know, pointing it out -- if a person really wanted to push back against whatever it is that CitiApartments is doing, they could pretty easily twist the knife a bit on Cragistlist, simply by flagging every single CitiApartments listing. (Someone we know just tried this, and says it's very fun.) Then keep an eye on them." Read more about it.