LOS ANGELES : Limit on Tenant-Screening Disclosures Overturned

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge this week declared unconstitutional a state law passed in 1992 that restricts what tenant-screening services can tell landlords about the eviction records of prospective tenants.

David Pallack, an attorney for San Fernando Valley Neighborhood Legal Services, said he will file an appeal within 10 days.

Judge Harvey Schneider affirmed an April 8 ruling against a state law which prohibited companies from disclosing information about eviction court cases that were dismissed or decided in the prospective tenants’ favor. The information services were allowed under the law to report only the eviction proceedings that prospective tenants lost.

The judge described the law as “overbroad,” ruling that it infringed on the free speech rights of tenant-screening services such as U.D. Registry, a Van Nuys service that challenged the law. Attorneys for U.D. Registry argue that dismissed eviction cases are relevant to a prospect’s record because often they represent a case that the landlord dropped after the tenant gave up the legal fight and moved out.