Legal Question in Business Law in California

I am going to take a somewhat different approach in commenting on the underlying idea rather than limiting my response to the specific question asked.

In my opinion, if two separate business of whatever kind were to share the same name, Web site, advertising, etc., it would become at least a joint venture, and probablya partnership, as a matter of law, and there would be instant, automatic shared liability.

I refer you to the Corporations Code definition of a general partnership as "an association of two or more persons to carry on as coowners a business for profit........" (sections 16101(9) and 16202(a)) "......whether or not the persons intend to form a partnership."

If sued, more likely than not the burden would fall on defendant(s) to show that it was not a partnership, possibly because there was no coownership, but there's a good chance you'd fail in that respect and general partnership law would be applied in determining liability.

I actually was going to answer the same as Mr. Whipple, on a slightly different basis. I'm not sure whether or not you could pin a partnership on the situation you put forward, since it does not sound like the different businesses would actually be co-owners of a single business for profit. On the other hand, however, using the same name, and especially if there is any concurrent ownership between the brokerage and the property management company, will raise a presumption of agency between the two companies. I also agree that it will make it easy for a plaintiff to plead a partnership, even if they can't prove it. At the very least it will cause trouble and expense to the uninvolved entity when the other one gets sued and they get brought into it.

What most companies do in this situation is use two DBA's or two company names that are nearly identical but not entirely identical. They could also advertise under the "XYZ Group of Companies" as long as they do their actual business under their individual DBA's or corporate names.

Both the lawyers above are correct, and I'll add the following - you need a business attorney who can review and analyze your situation and come to a solution that meets your needs and limits your liabilities. Clients most often come looking for "X", and after consultation realize they need "Y", and not "X" (which is one reason why self-help legal services are very dangerous). You're right to ask the question, but need to talk to a lawyer about a solution.