Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

In general the landlord is not responsible for damage to a tenant's personal property unless the landlord damaged it himself. The landlord does not have a general duty to protect the tenant or the tenant's property. There are some situations in which the landlord may be responsible if the damage was foreseeable and the landlord could have taken reasonable steps to prevent such as extra lighting in a particular area of the property.

You may be able to overcome the general rule of no duty owed by the landlord if you can show that there was a history of such behavior known to the landlord and that he could have taken some steps that were not too burdensome to help prevent the behavior. It is a case by case analysis.