Disclosure of information - Oregon

[agirl1117]

Exactly what information can a former or current landlord disclose to a potential landlord about a tenant in Oregon?

Are there any limitations or restrictions to what can be disclosed?

I believe, in California, landlords can only ask and answer, simple, specific, yes or no questions about a tenant - is this true for Oregon?
Or can they just say whatever they want about a tenant?

[agirl1117]

In looking at the posts that have received replies, it seems you want a more detailed description of the problem rather than a general question.

I had a car, which I was in the process of selling to someone in Australia. The car did not have current registration.

One day I walked outside to find a sticker on my car that said it was in violation and needed to be moved within 24 hours or else it would be towed. The sticker did not say who it was from or why I was in violation, so honestly I just assumed I had parked in someone else's spot because the parking spots are not clearly designated as guest or reserved.
So I moved the car to another empty spot.
The next day I came home from work and my car was gone, they had towed it to a city over 20 miles away.
I went to office in tears (I was also a week past my due date and extremely emotional to say the least) and asked why they had towed my car.
They said they towed it because the registration was expired and that was a violation of my lease.
I (still in tears) asked why they didn't try to contact me (they knew the car was mine as it was the car I listed in my lease) but they didn't try to call me or come to the door (even though they had to walk by my door to get to the car).
They were extremely rude and at one point the manager started yelling at me about being irresponsible.
Needless to say, this really pissed my boyfriend off, especially after he found out it was going to cost us $300 to get it from the tow yard. So he went to the office and sarcastically told them to write him a check for $300.

Instead they called the cops on him for being loud. The cops came and actually told us we should press charges.
but whatever getting off track

A week later we get a notice saying they are not going to renew our lease (as if we actually wanted to stay here - we wanted to break our lease but it would have cost us almost 2000 to do so)

Ever since then, they have been literally targetting us for whatever they can.
They put a note on our door that said we were throwing cigarette butts into the common area and letting our dog poop there. WE DONT EVEN SMOKE.
I sent them a letter stating that we dont smoke and we dispose of our dog's waste acccordingly. I also stated that unless they have cameras over here they had better start questioning the 6 other apartments that have access to the area. The next day they put a letter on everyone's door.

Well, suffice it to say, we were extremely excited that our lease is up at the end of May and we found a new great place, however, the potential LL just called me to say that our current LL told them a bunch of "crap" about us and how we throw cigarette butts everywhere, that our cars aren't registered, that we yell at them, and on and on.
We have never paid our rent even a day late, we are excellent tenants! The people who live above us throw garbage out of their back door - on Thanksgiving they threw their turkey carcas out into the bushes - there are plants and garbage stuck in the trees outside of their back door. I mentioned this to our LL in the response to the cigarette butts/dog poop complaint.
Anyways, I just want to know if that is legal for them to say all of that?
We have been good tenants and now we missed out on an awesome house and we are starting to run out of time to move now because our lease is up at the end of May and we were banking on that house, but now we have to start looking all over again, and what if the next LL wont approve us based on our current LL's lies??

[OHlandlord]

I'm sorry I don't know the exact answer to this question. You will have to consult state laws on privacy. In general, absent any laws to the contrary, a LL may state whatever is true in a rental context. He can state you have received notices about littering and dog waste. He can state that the police needed to be called for a disturbance. He can state that your car was towed as unregistered.

He cannot, however, state any personal opinions. He can't say a bunch of "crap" or any undocumented comments. But he can state rental facts.

I suggest you tell the next LL that you had a disagreement with your curent LL about a car and it was towed. Say this in the nicest possible way without "dissing" your current LL. (No LL wants a tenant who complains about the current one.) Give the next LL alternative references such as prior LLs contact info, and offer to verify income with pay stubs, and any other info they would like. If you can, offer to pay a higher deposit or sign a month to month agreement for the first few months so they can see you are not a PITA. Assure them that this disagreement was a misunderstanding and will not happen again. Good luck.