Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

Re: Property management Company and Tenant

This is not an easy question to answer. On the one hand, I believe that DCFS is a quasi-law enforcement agency, and as such, they have the right to investigate and inquire about your personal life through a variety of sources. As such, I would have to say that their inquiry with the property management company was a legitimate investigative technique on their part.

So, then the question is did the management company violate a duty it has to you regarding your "private" information, or alternatively, can they be liable to you for disseminating false information? On the first issue - I believe they are probably protected in what they told DCFS so long as they believed it to be true. The information that the management company shared with the DCFS investigators was not private - records of police calls are public record - they could have found out by going to the police department and pulling their blotter. So, I believe that if they were reasonably accurate with what they said - i.e., they reasonably believed what they told DCFS investigators was true, then they are protected and probably have no liability towards you.

Alternatively, if they intentionally told the investigators false information, then you may have a claim for defamation. You need to contact an attorney who specializes in that area of law to determine if you have a cause of action.

Finally, there is protection in a civil context for your private consumer information. If someone who had a judgment against you for $10,000 went to the property management company and asked for your private information, the management company could not give it without a court order and a special notice to you before it is disclosed. Those protections do not exist in a non-civil context, and I believe the DCFS investigation falls more likely outside of the protections for civil matters than in.

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