A Series of Unfortunate Events

Mark Fortune has taken me to court.

Mr Fortune, an Edinburgh landlord whose scumbaggery has been well documented in the courts and press, owns a rental flat in our stairwell here on Gillespie Crescent. I first met him in February, when he happened to be on the street. I inquired about his unpaid share of communal repairs while he sat in his idling Porsche SUV and denied being Mark Fortune. In April, after I encouraged several potential tenants who had come to look at the Fortune flat to research their potential landlord, it got weird: I received an emailed threat…to my dog! This prompted me to call the police and then make a long post on Facebook documenting all this. (https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheMeadowsShare/?multi_permalinks=6014518635311821) There then followed a series of whingy FB comments from a fake account that pretended to be a tenant and a comment from another fake Facebook account showing an Instagram site that specified my address and implied I am a child molester. Wow.

Mr Fortune has now taken me to court. He alleges – in a mixture of exaggeration, outright lies, and omission – that I am harassing him, attempting to incite violence against him, stalking him, and attempting to blackmail and/or extort money from him. Because of this, he has requested a number of interdicts that would prevent me or anybody acting on my behalf approaching him or interfering with his business, attending the front entrance of the stairwell, or seeking information from or giving information to any tenants; he also wants me to remove my Facebook posts on the whole matter. The irony of all this will not be lost on many of you, but for those less familiar with Mr Fortune’s track record, I recommend you google “mark fortune edinburgh”. Add terms like “threaten” for extra fun…

Unfortunately, court is a serious undertaking. I managed on my own at the first hearing to get extra time to obtain representation. My solicitor has now stepped in brilliantly, but due to quick timelines – and Mr Fortune’s willingness to throw wild and completely fabricated accusations into the fray at the last minute – we have quickly racked up £9000 in expenses. Yes: £9000. ☹

Where does this lead? My immediate focus is on successfully defending against this absurd litigation. But in the longer run, I want this case to help further galvanize resistance to people like Mr Fortune who make their living preying upon 1) tenants, by providing substandard housing, jacking up rents, and then stealing their deposits when they flee; and 2) neighbours, whom he has likely cost hundreds of thousands of pounds in property damage, property devaluation, and unpaid repair bills. I want this case to help bring additional pressure to bear on the Edinburgh City Council and Police Scotland, who seem unable or unwilling to hold this man to account. And until the problem is fixed, I want this case to show everyone that we can stand up to this nonsense! One by one, Mr Fortune might easily intimidate or bully us into submission, but not if we defend ourselves together. I hear that Mr Fortune is almost on his knees, financially. I’ve looked him in the eyes. He is weak. We are strong.

The best way to resist bullies is as a team. Will you join this one?