When can a maintenance man answer questions about paying of rent instead of rental manager answering?

Question

We live in NY state. We own a mobile home located in a mobile home park. We pay rent on the lot. We are a little behind, but nothing major. We had our home sold. The buyer asked the maintenance man about our payment history without our permission. The maintenance man told him we were behind $1900.!!! This amount is totally wrong. First of all, I feel the mainenance man should not have had access to these records and should have referred the buyer to the park manager. Second, this amount is way off. Third, how can the maintenance man release our personal credit/payment info without our permission. I feel that with him releasing the wrong amt, etc, it is slander. It also caused us to lose the sale. We were going to take money from the sale and catch up the lot rent. Any insight or info would be appreciated

Answer 1

A maintenance man would not be privy to financial information of that type so his input would be meaningless. And given the minimal financial resources of most maintenance people there's not a lot of hope for collecting on any judgment even if you could get one.

How a maintenance man's comment about a debt could cause you to lose a sale doesn't make any sense at all. Any arrearages would be cleared at the time of sale so would be immaterial to the closing of the sale.

It sounds like your buyer was looking for any excuse to back out of the agreement. Letting them off the hook for such a weak reason wouldn't make sense. At the very least you would be entitled to retain their earnest money.

Answer 2

Many people ask the maintenance men questions because one - they do have access, and it is easier to get an answer from them.

I sorry to say I done it myself.

One of these guy had handed me a notice to a tenant from the rent office. It is not right but it is done.

Answer 3

if the amount he told them was wrong, he probably didn't have any access to your records and he was probably just guessing... he shouldn't be able to release your information, but if you take it to court, it will just be a case of he said/she said... it's best to just let it go and not spend good money after bad to take it to court or anything like that...