Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: info on ownership of a property/resadents

First, knowing who the owner is won't necessarily tell you who is entitled to collect the rent, because property owners often employ agents or property management companies to do the routine activities such as collecting rents, interviewing tenants, and that sort of thing.

You can find out who the record or apparent owner is by checking the records at the county tax assessor's and/or recorder's office. You will need the assessor parcel number, but if you start with the address, you can probably obtain the APN. In some counties, you can do this checking on line, at least up to a point; in other counties, little or no information is available without going to the courthouse or hall of records.

If you have a situation where two different parties are claiming to have the right to collect the rent from you, one possibly useful strategy is to remind both of them that collecting rent without the legal right to do so is a crime. See Civil Code sections 890 through 893. There are civil remedies as well as criminal penalties for this; the practice is known as "rent skimming."