Landlord Products / Services
Now, this is an interesting and rather concerning situation. It’s a bit long winded, it’s a bit tedious, but I’ll try to be precise. I’ll, regrettably, I’ll be holding back on the usual obscenities, just to keep shit legit.
So, yes, as the title suggests, Mark Sawyer Of Property Association (thepropertyassociation.com), has threatened to take legal action against my ass over a comment someone else left on my blog.
Someone named Phil labelled Mark as a “liar“, which Mark felt was slander, and presumably, highly offensive.
Right, okay.
Allegedly, I could also face legal prosecution because I’m hosting the alleged occasion on my website.
Oh, well that doesn’t sound good at all. HELP!
It all started in my Be careful of Property Associations blog post, where I copy/pasted a comment left by someone in a forum thread that had gone through a negative experience with a Property Association company.
My message was loud and clear: be careful when dealing with property associations (no company in particular, just the general concept of the scheme), because they’re not plain sailing money-making opportunities- as they’re often made out to be.
Since posting that blog, words have been exchanged in the comments section by contributors’, which quickly turned nasty. I wasn’t actually aware of what was being said, because I don’t moderate comments, but somewhere in there was Phil’s comment about Mark Sawyer
Mark Sawyer’s emails begin ascending…
On the 11th of March, I received 9 formal emails consecutively from Mark between the times of 1pm and 9pm, some of which implied that legal action against me was on the cards if I didn’t comply with his demands.
Yes, that’s 9 consecutive emails in the space of 8 hours!!
Some were duplicated, but were sent at different times, so I’m presuming he was resending the emails to make sure I received them LOUD AND CLEAR.
I, of course, was oblivious to the full situation, because as usual I didn’t finish work until 5pm, and that particular night I had a football match after work, so I didn’t get through my front door until about 21:00.
I checked my emails at approx 21:30, only to see the alarming number of emails from one Mark Sawyer.
Gosh, this looks serious. Did I accidentally sleep with someone’s wife?
If only.
Mark’s first email was sent at 13:45, he shapely explained why he had contacted me, and requested that I remove the entire blog post before the close of business, and also requested for me to hand over Phil’s contact details.
He emailed again at 16:11, giving me a, I quote, “FINAL WARNING” to remove the entire page by 17:30, otherwise he might be forced to get a court injunction against me.
Bear in mind, I hadn’t even read any of the emails until 21:30, let alone the final warning which was sent 3 hours after his first email.
This all seemed rather erratic and irrational. I was still picking the mud out of my ears from my football match.
Out of curiosity, is a 3 hour gap between the first email and a “final warning” appropriate or even normal behavior? At the very LEAST give me 24 hours to respond to the first email.
I felt like I was being bullied, in all honesty. Being threatened with legal action is no joke.
Legal threats straight off the bat, for a comment someone else left, really?
Ironically, on his website, he’s quoted saying:
Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference
– Mark Sawyer
Right, of course.
After reading through all of Mark’s emails and the comments left on the original blog post, I was finally up to speed.
For legal council, I contacted my solicitor for guidance on how to proceed. In turn, I responded to Mark’s email and asked him to explain precisely, which specific parts of the page/content he had a problem with.
I made it clear I would remove all material that qualifies as slander. Obviously, I had no problem with that at all, because I don’t want anyone wrongfully accused of anything on my website, including Mark Sawyer.
Do you know what he responded with?
He emailed me definitions of the word “slander” and “defamation” which he had copy/pasted from somewhere, pointed out the specific problems with the content, and then instructed me to remove the page entirely, because that was the only suitable solution.
Crickey.
I haven’t removed the blog post simply because I don’t feel I have to, and it certainly isn’t the only suitable solution as far as I’m concerned.
I did, however, change every aspect of the page Mark had a problem with, all within 24 hours of being notified. I think I’ve been more than accommodating, especially since it feels like someone has been barking orders at me from the offset, without any prior attempts of a less lively resolution.
Obviously I want to resolve the issue without any legal proceedings, because I can’t imagine anyone likes playing Russian Roulette with the legal system. But for now, Mark seems adamant for me to remove the entire article, but I’m reluctant to do that because I don’t see any need to.
The saddest part about this all is that a simple, “Hey, what’s up? My name’s Mark. There’s a small issue on your site, so I was wondering if you could help me out…etc”, would have been a much more productive approach, but he seemingly chose the abrupt all guns blazing approach. I guess that says a lot about his character.
I would have rather worked with Mark Sawyer on this, to tackle the issues, as opposed to working against him.
Go figure, aye?
Wish me luck!
I’ve been searching around online to see if other bloggers have found themselves in similar situations, and I managed to find a couple of high profile bloggers. The most famous case being Aaron Wall, from SEObook. Aaron actually won his case, so congratulations to him. That gives me hope.
I have nothing against Mark Sawyer or his company, but after this experience, I can safely say that I will never use or endorse any of his services.
I’m not sure how this will all unravel – hopefully not much further – but your support in this situation would be much appreciated.
Wish me luck, folks xo
Disclaimer: I'm just a landlord blogger; I'm 100% not qualified to give legal or financial advice. I'm a doofus. Any information I share is my unqualified opinion, and should never be construed as professional legal or financial advice. You should definitely get advice from a qualified professional for any legal or financial matters. For more information, please read my full disclaimer.
Fuck him! What an arrogant little arse - obviously (allegedly) business is so bad he has plenty of time to sit around sending you emails. For you to give him the details of the offending person would surely be a breach of the data protection act if indeed it covers the internet.
I reckon that you acted in a timely manner once you had been made aware of the offending article given that you were away from the 'office'.
Just goes to show that some people are (allegedly)far too sensitive to be sucessful in business and have no sense of humour or reality at all. Great advert for his business dont you think? I certainly want to do business with an (alleged) narrow minded pin headed bottom feeding pond-dwelling arse.
Power to the people!
Oh - did I say fuck him?(allegedly). Keep up the great site and keep on blogging!
Jools
To be clear this comment is my own personal view and not the expressed or implied view of the author of the original article.