Former landlord badmouths tenant seeking new rentals

[emcorpus]

My friend lived in a rental cottage for about two years. She complained to the landlord numerous times about the presence of rats. When the landlord's response was slow or non-existent she finally e-mailed him and threatened to escalate the complaint to the health department. However, these complaints were always couched in a respectful way. She maintained the property well, and when she finally moved she went out of her way to make sure the residence was properly cleaned. She moved to another residence, but decided that it did not suit her and gave notice to her current landlords. In the course of discussion they (the current landlords) informed her that her former landlord had made statements that she had been a bad tenant, that she had complained about rats but had "brought them with her". My friend was totally blindsided by this, as she had gone out of her way to leave her former residence clean, and feels that the accusation of her bringing the rats and being a bad tenant are totally false. She fears that her ability to find satisfactory housing will be sabotaged by this former landlord's statements. My questions are: Does she have legal recourse, and does her former landlord's false statements constitute libel? Would it be legal to call the former landlord using the pretext of potentially renting to my friend in order to witness the former landlord's bad statements first hand? Thank you in advance for your opinion in this matter.

 

[Gail_in_Georgia]

Your friend needs to sit down and seriously think whether these statements (false or not) have sabotaged her ability to find satisfactory housing. This is the argument she would need to make in court should she decide to sue over these statement.

The fact that many landlords do not bother to contact a tenants former landlord aside, your friend was able to rent from her current landlord despite what her former landlord said. It would appear that whatever was said had little impact on their decision to rent to her.

Gail

 

[emcorpus]

Thank you for your reply. She is planning to move again (current residence where she lived a month and a half is not satisfactory) so the issue is not with her current landlord, but with the previous one. She fears that the previous landlord giving her unwarranted bad reviews will impact her ability to find suitable housing. The route she is planning at this time is to sue in small claims court for breach of contract and for nuisance due to his multiple failures in dealing with the rat infestation problem over two years. She believes that the former landlord is retaliating for her threat to report him to the health department. (Even though I say "threat", she remained polite and respectful in all her communications with him.) If she launches that small claims suit now, will it impact her current ability to rent from other landlords, i.e., will they get wind of it? Should she wait until she is firmly moved into a residence before launching the small claims suit? Thanks again.