Oviedo

This is an appeal by Elvira Oviedo (appellant) of an order granting a special motion to strike each cause of action in her complaint pursuant to the anti-SLAPP 1 statute, Code of Civil Procedure section 425.16. 2 Appellant contends that the trial court’s granting of the special motion to strike was in error as (1) respondents’ alleged illegal rent increase, the basis of her first cause of action, was not a protected activity, and (2) she established a probability of prevailing with respect to her malicious prosecution action. We agree with appellant and will reverse the order in part.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

1. Factual History of the Parties’ Dispute

Appellant resides in apartment J of a 12-unit complex on S. Windsor Boulevard (the Windsor Complex) in Los Angeles, California. The Windsor Complex is owned by respondent Windsor Twelve Properties, LLC (Windsor). Respondent Marc Myers (Myers) is the managing member of *102 Windsor. Myers’s family purchased the Windsor Complex in 1999 and transferred its ownership to Windsor in 2000 and Myers became the managing member at that time. Appellant was residing in apartment J prior to the Myers’s family’s purchase.…