Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California

Re: Slander

You can sue for damages even before you suffer financial harm. Harm to your reputation is enough to support a claim for slander or libel. Without a financial component you might not be able to win much in the way of damages and that might prevent you from getting a lawyer to take the case on a contingent fee basis, but that's another issue.

You also have the option of seeking a retraining order instead of or along with damages.

Either way, though, your case against this resident may not be as strong as you think. The resident's statements (whether oral or in writing) may be covered by the common-interest privilege. This privilege allows people to share information with others who share a legitimate interest in the information, and often applies to accusations of wrongdoing circulated within a specific group of people whose interests the wrongdoing would affect. The rule is too subtle and complex to explain in detail here and it might not apply in your case, but if it does it could bar your claim entirely.