UPDATE 2:25 P.M. FRIDAY: KnightNews.com just received the following statement from Boardwalk
Dear Cliff,
Thank you for allowing me to respond.
Boardwalk’s lease does state one resident per room as well as no overnight guests. I do not want to speculate on other communities lease terms or decisions their management chooses to make. Very rarely to we have to reiterate our lease to our residents. It only becomes an issue when we have habitual offenders who does not take consideration for their fellow roommates. When this is brought to our attention that a person is basically living in an apartment that is not on the lease, we have to take action. We are doing this to protect our residents. They did not sign up to possibly pay the electric bill for their roommates boyfriend, girlfriend, sister or brother, ect. or any other incidents that could arise by another person staying in the apartment. The majority of our residents live peacefully with their roommates without issue and we do not monitor how they live. They are adults and are treated like adults. However, when a resident notifies me of this problem, I have to abide the terms of the lease. I apologize to those who were offended by the e-mail. It was directed to isolated cases however the information of our possible future actions had to be sent to every resident so they know in advance. We strive to make a happy, healthy college living experience for everyone. We appreciate you allowing us to respond to this situation, however we feel that it is best to answer any further questions directly to our residents and future residents. My door is always open if any of your readers would like to speak with me directly. Anyone that has spoken with me personally knows I will do anything I possibly can for ANY of my residents within the lease guidelines to ensure their happiness here at Boardwalk. Again, thank you for this opportunity.
Brianne Stabler
Property Manager
Boardwalk at Alafaya Trail
UPDATE 9 P.M. THURSDAY: Boardwalk Backs Down From Calling Attorneys About KnightNews.com
Boardwalk Apartments has backed down from its threat to call attorneys over the story KnightNews.com broke regarding an e-mail apartment management sent to residents about how the complex doesn’t allow overnight guests.
KnightNews.com received an e-mail from a Boardwalk manager at 5:30 p.m. on Friday making it clear that the complex will not sue the student media organization serving UCF.
“There seem to be a lot of rumors floating around that we are sueing you,” Kimberly Bittle wrote in an e-mail requesting KnightNews.com let its visitors know a lawsuit will not be filed.
Concerns about possible legal action from Boardwalk began when KnightNews.com received an e-mail from the complex stating they would contact their attorneys if KnightNews.com did not remove “inaccurate information” about Boardwalk’s overnight guest restrictions in its lease. However, that e-mail did not say what information Boardwalk believed was inaccurate.
Even though KnightNews.com was confident with the accuracy of e-mails it obtained showing Boardwalk management’s plans to enforce a ban on overnight guests after 2 a.m., KnightNews.com sent an e-mail to Boardwalk management giving them a chance to dispute it or provide clarification — and waited nearly 24 hours before publishing the story after no response was given.
“We contacted you prior to finding out you had indeed tried to contact us about the situation,” Bittle explained, referring to the e-mail sent to KnightNews.com saying Boardwalk would contact their attorneys about the story.
Bittle cited a flood of e-mails and an extremely busy day at the office dealing with backlash from the overnight policy announcement as the reason that Boardwalk did not respond to KnightNews.com’s e-mail seeking comment sent Tuesday night by the end of the business day Wednesday.
KnightNews.com has not seen the lease, so it’s not clear if there’s an actual deadline set in the lease for when overnight guests must leave. Boardwalk management said it has been extremely busy, and is working on a response to that question, as well as others KnightNews.com asked about the situation.
Although Boardwalk management has yet to confirm this, it now appears, according to tipsters, that at least one portion of the lease does not have a deadline of 2 a.m. for overnight guests, and instead is more generic about prohibiting them.
Here’s a portion of an e-mail a tipster shared with KnightNews.com regarding what the actual text of the lease says:
“The Boardwalk lease is sort of broken into two parts. The first being very technical with very small print. The second part is titled ‘Great Southern Investments & Asset Management Rules, Community Services and Policies.’
There is a section titled ‘Guest’ which reads in its entirety, ‘We welcome your guests, friends and family members to our community. Remember to inform them of our parking policies and community policies. Resident is solely responsible for their guests and any damage done to the property by themselves or their guests. No overnight guests will be permitted. Because of the nature of the apartments, it is understood overnight guests are expressly prohibited. No more than 15 guests or visitors may visit an apartment at a time.'”
KnightNews.com is working with management from Boardwalk to confirm whether those exact details exist in the lease, and to get more details about why they felt the original e-mails to residents were needed. We expect an update from them in the morning, and will post them as quickly as possible after we get the e-mail.
If you have a tip for KnightNews.com, e-mail us at news@knightnews.com so we can investigate it for you. You may submit tips anonymously by clicking the “send story tips” link above.
THURSDAY 12:45 PM UPDATE:
KnightNews.com got a response from Boardwalk’s Kimberly Bittle just before noon apologizing for not responding to our original requests. She said she had overlooked our e-mail requesting information before posting the original story, because it was buried within many other emails that came in about the situation. Bittle also said she used the yahoo.com account, because her work server is acting up.
KnightNews.com and Boardwalk are trying to schedule a time to have a sit down interview about the situation, as there is clearly another side of this story we’d like to hear — that’s why we waited almost a day before posting it originally. Until we can find a time that works for both of us, we offered Boardwalk the chance to write an unedited statement we will post on KnightNews.com to say whatever they’d like to about the situation. We also sent a list of questions we felt our visitors would want addressed, and will let you know when we get them answered. We will post the updates to this story as soon as we can get them online.
KnightNews.com also has obtained a follow-up e-mail sent from Brianne to its residents. You can read that by clicking here.
If you have a tip you’d like KnightNews.com to investigate, please email it to: news@knightnews.com .
Original story from early Thursday morning
Boardwalk Apartments Threatens KnightNews.com
KnightNews.com seeks volunteer first amendment lawyers to defend itself against Boardwalk’s threats
UCF’s student-owned KnightNews.com is gearing up for the fight of its life — a possible legal battle with a giant student housing corporation, upset over a story written about its overnight guest policy.
On Thursday night, KnightNews.com received an e-mail from boardwalkalafaya@yahoo.com, belonging to a woman who identified herself as Kimberly Bittle saying: “Please be advised that your inaccurate information in regards to our lease policies needs to be removed immediately or our attorneys will be contacted. Thank you for your time.”
However, the manager refuses to point out what information she claims is inaccurate.
The apparent threat of legal action by Boardwalk, owned by Great Southern Investments and Asset Management out of Gainesville, comes after KnightNews.com published a story entitled: “Boardwalk Apartments Ends Overnight Hookups, Late Night Studying With Guests.”
KnightNews.com broke the story after getting several tips from residents of the complex, upset about an e-mail signed by property manager Brianne Stabler telling them: “As of today Feb 8th, Boardwalk will be enforcing our lease policy that states no residents are to have overnight guests at any time. We feel that your guest should be leaving no later than 2am. … They are not to crash on the couch or spend the night in your room at any time. If you feel your roommate is having guests over, please contact the courtesy officer at 407-870-7002 after 2am and all guests will be escorted out of the property and the resident could be served legal notice of violation.”
Before posting a story on the topic, Knightnews.com sent an e-mail to Stabler at 7 p.m. Tuesday informing her we were working on the story, and giving her the opportunity to comment before it was published the next day. After waiting nearly 24 hours without getting any response, KnightNews.com published the story at 4:11 p.m. the next day, on Wednesday.
Two hours after the story was published, KnightNews.com received the e-mail threatening apparent legal action and sent the following response:
Dear Boardwalk:
Please let us know what information you feel is inaccurate.
We feel like we made a good faith effort to get your side before we
posted the story, and it appears you chose to ignore us.
In addition, out of a courtesy to you, we held back on information
that the tipsters asked us to keep their names confidential, for fear
you’d retaliate against the tipsters. We believe we were more than
fair, and we can’t help you chose not to comment after we waited
nearly 24 hours for a response from you.
Just as we said when we used due diligence to try and get your side
before posting the story, we welcome your side — that’s why we asked
for it!
If you would be more specific about what you feel is inaccurate, we
would be happy to include your response. But please realize we will
not delete this article based on a two sentence e-mail from you that
lacks any specific proof it contains any inaccurate information,
especially after we confirmed the policy e-mail was sent to your
community by multiple sources. If you honestly feel you need to sue us
over this, I can promise you we will fight it to the very end if it
goes that route, and counter-sue for any damages we suffer while
spending time and money fighting a frivolous legal battle.
Thanks,
The KnightNews.com Team
In addition to the actual forwarded e-mail KnightNews.com received from Boardwalk residents, there is further evidence that Boardwalk management declared they’d stop allowing guests after 2 a.m. by the facebook fan page boasting more than 220 members entitled, “Petition against Boardwalk’s stupid new ‘No guests after 2AM policy.'”
Although very popular at UCF, KnightNews.com is a small, independent student-run news organization without a legal team or budget. Spending the resources it takes fighting off a lawsuit from a giant corporation spanning several states could cripple the student media organization — even if KnightNews.com did nothing wrong.
However, the KnightNews.com team has decided to stand up for the students who sent in the tips and fight this battle no matter what.
Over the next few days, KnightNews.com will be contacting first amendment groups to try and assemble some sort of voluntary first amendment legal team to assist with the fight. KnightNews.com will continue to update its thousands of visitors throughout the process.
Please share your comments below, or by e-mailing news@knightnews.com.
