I need to take my apartment complex to small claims... but the owner of the property is in a different county.

Question

I need to take my previous apartment complex to court buy I have a question about who I should sue and in which county I should do it in. I live in Los Angeles county in Southern California. I rented from an apartment complex in Los Angeles county. All my checks were made out to the apartment complex and I only delt with this apartment complex.

However, after checking on some things it looks like I need to sue the owner of the complex (not the complex itself). So, I checked and the owner is located in Northern California and is an LLC. Knowing that, do I sue my apartment complex down here in Los Angeles county or do I sue the owner located in Northern California?

Also, if I need to go after the owner of the property in Northern California I'm assuming I need to file a claim in their county's small claim court? That would mean when my court date comes up I'll need to travel up to their county to plead my case.

Answer 1

Actually, you can file it in Los Angeles, because that's where the contract was signed and was breached. Plus, they obviously do business there, in that they own that complex, so suing them in LA is perfectly legal.

But to serve them, you need to go to the CA Secretary of State's webpage and to the corporations information page (LLC's too). Look up the company and serve the complaint to the person listed as the agent for service of process.

I am a paralegal in California, I've done this before. IM me if you need more help. :)

Answer 2

Sue the owner. They own the apartment complex. The complex office where you send your check is merely an agent of the true owner.

As for where you can file, it depends on California's long arm statute within the state. Most states are small enough that if I file in New York County where I live, I can force someone from Upstate to answer in NY County, as long as they have some ties to the County that I'm suing them based on. Which, in this case, they do, they own an apartment complex in your county.

However, with California, as it's such a large state, it might be different.

According to what I can find of California's Code of Civil Procedure, section 410.10 states: "A court of this state may exercise jurisdiction on any basis not inconsistent with the Constitution of this state or of the United States," which is very broad, and probably gives your court jurisdiction.

Answer 3

What makes you think you need to go after the owner? In most cases, the owner will have a company set up (the apartment complex or a holding company) that actually ownes the apartments. For most things, you would probably need to file against the company and not the individual.

Answer 4

Why exactly are you suing?

If it is for a breach of contract (i.e. not returning your security deposit, etc.), you can sue where the contract was formed, which would appear from your story to be LA county. You don't need to go where the defendant lives.

It will tell you this on the small claims forms that you need to fill out to start your case.