Site exposes slumlords

The fledgling website LandOrSlum.com created last April by Pitt graduate students provides… The fledgling website LandOrSlum.com created last April by Pitt graduate students provides an open and anonymous resource center for renters to rate and share opinions of their landlords and properties.

LandOrSlum.com allows users to rate and post comments on either apartment or vacation rental properties. Users then choose the city in which they want to rank a landlord or property on a scale of one (worst) to five (best).

Creators Adam Gorzelsky, a current Pitt Law student, and Katie Wilson, who is currently studying counseling psychology at Chatham University, established LandOrSlum.com to address the issue of unscrupulous real estate practices in the Oakland area.

“After suffering through three years of bad renting experiences at Pitt and after hearing so many horror stories from fellow students, we figured it was about time for students and other renters to finally have the opportunity to fight back,” Wilson said.

The website also includes a forum where users can post landlord stories, classified advertisements for furniture and subletting opportunities, as well as a general discussion section.

The website requires users to register with a valid e-mail address.

Currently the website has 624 users from 81 cities and 467 rankings of 305 different landlords nationwide. One hundred sixty of these landlords are located in Pittsburgh.

“I think the housing situation in Pittsburgh, along with many other cities in America, is a grave problem,” Wilson said. “When I walk down many streets in Oakland, in addition to my own experiences in renting, it’s obvious that many landlords don’t care about their renters.”

Since Gorzelsky and Wilson are Pitt graduates, the website has become increasingly popular in Oakland among Pitt students as a way to rate university housing as well as off-campus housing.

Gorzelsky and Wilson strive to expand the website to all college campuses.

“This would not only improve the housing at the universities,” Gorzelsky said, “but it will give both students and landlords valuable information about each other’s needs.”

Posts on LandOrSlum.com can be a double-edged sword depending on the experience of the user.

Some posts express resentment. One disgruntled renter rated his landlord as a one, describing the landlord as, “Cheap, very shady and passive aggressive.”

Other landlords receive praise.

One satisfied renter said his landlord was “Very much laid back about various ‘wear and tear’ we put the place through. Very decent about how much he charged for things we broke. Great place all around probably the best rental experience I ever had.”

Gorzelsky and Wilson are concerned that landlords could sue them for defamation. But in their own defense they argue, “We are not posting this information; we are only providing the forum for the information.”

Pitt Law professor Michael Madison said that “Under the Federal Communication Declaration Act, someone who operates a website where people post comments is not legally responsible for what is said in the posts unless there is a copyright violation.”

Both creators said that they monitor the website meticulously and remove any posts that are blatant lies or contain factual errors, though posters on the site are not identified by name.

In one instance the duo received an e-mail from a landlord who claimed that he was negatively rated for a property that he didn’t actually own. Gorzelsky and Wilson checked the land records and found that, according to the Allegheny County office of assessment, the property was not listed under that landlord’s name and the post was immediately deleted.

Landlords who do not have a claim against factual errors must cope with the remarks on LandOrSlum.com, though.

Robb Real Estate, located on Atwood Street, received comments on opposite ends of the ranking spectrum.

One renter rated Robb Real Estate a one because of bad service.

“You ask a question and get told one answer then you turn around and they tell you the complete opposite. They seem nice and friendly to begin with, but when it comes down to it, they don’t care about you one bit,” the post read.

But from another renter, Robb Real Estate received a rating of five. The user replied to the previous ranking quoted above: “I don’t know what the other posts are talking about. These people have always been so nice and understanding whenever I’ve talked to them. Don’t have your rent exactly on time one month? Fineno problem. Forget to pay the water bill last month? No problem, just pay next month.”

In response to these conflicting posts Dan Robb, owner of Robb Real Estate, said that no matter how fair a landlord is there will always be displeased clients.

Robb said he was appalled by the language, and that the website was out of control and unprofessional.

“People who look at this should take it with a grain of salt,” Robb said. “By the context of the posts you can tell they are disgruntled and will write down anything.”

LandOrSlum.com users are also given the opportunity to rank university campus housing.

One student ranked Pitt’s Bouquet Gardens apartments a three because, “For the amount of money one has to pay to live in these small rooms, once again the University wins and the students are forced to take the loss.”

The director of Pitt’s office of off-campus housing offered no comment when asked about LandOrSlum.com.

With a few exceptions, Gorzelsky explained, “We have run into a few problems with landlords, but not as many as we expected. What has been a surprise has been the positive feedback that we have received from many landlords.

“It seems as though many landlords appreciate the feedback, either positive or negative, and we hope that they will use this feedback to improve their renting practices.”