Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

Re: Small claims

Is your mother a licensed real estate salesperson or broker acting as a manager, or is she an on-site manager? The answer to that question is going to play a very big role in whether she is liable or not. If she is the former, then she almost certainly will have some liability to the tenants - licensed property managers bear the same responsibility as the landlord on issues such as improper retention of security deposits. That's not to say, however, that she cannot file a cross-complaint against the owners for defense and indemnification since they are the bad-actors here. She needs an attorney unless these are all small claims cases, in which case she just needs to file a cross-complaint against them. Alternatively, she can make a private demand that they indemnify her, but best bet is to cross-complain against them. If she is simply an on-site manager (unlicensed) then she should still cross-complain against the landlords, but she is probably not going to be found liable - the judge in small claims court would ask why the plaintiffs did not sue the property owner.

As for the foreclosures, if I were her, I would not touch those properties where she knows they are in foreclosure. Again, this is a question of whether she is acting as a licensed property manager, or just an on-site manager. In either case, the landlords may have some liability.

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Re: Small claims

I agree with attorney Gibbs. The owners and perhaps your mother could also be liable for up to double the amount of the security deposit under Civ. Code 1950 for a "bad faith" retention of the deposit.