When I was a renter I would have paid extra to live in a smoke-free apartment building. I’ve lived in a couple of places where I could smell the smoke from neighbors’ cigarettes even with all of my doors and windows shut. I absolutely hate, hate, hate the smell.
Landlords can and do include all sorts of restrictions in leases. I had one who said I couldn’t leave the windows open when I wasn’t home because my cats “might” push the screens out. She also said I couldn’t put an air conditioner in the window because it would damage the window casing. In comparison, a ban on smoking seems rational.
I would agree to that. However, being a smoker myself, I’d appreciate at least being able to smoke on the patio of my apartment (assuming that it has one). We’ve all been smoking outdoors for the past ten years. It’s just become another part of life.
If you live in a smoke free apartment, just step outside when you need to light up. No problems.
What about the legalities? “No-pets” clauses are quite common in apt. leases, but I know that “no-children” clauses have run into all sorts of problems. Has there ever been a lawsuit about a “no-smoking” apartment building or complex?
If I do move into my mother’s complex, I am going to be damn sure to get a ground-floor unit!
Okay. I’m still baffled. I reckon, over the years, that I’ve lived in apartments for a total of 22 years. The only time I could smell anything from any of my neighbors’ apartments was when 1) they were grilling on their patio, 2) they were smoking pot and we both had our patio doors open, and 3) one memorable occasion when the kook next door decided to scrub the area between our apartments (and under my bedroom window) with undiluted Pine-Sol.
Several houses here in my city have been converted to apartments, and many of them ban smoking; also, as I said before, there are apartment buildings for the elderly/disabled which prohibit smoking. You may want to look into one of those two options, Eve.
Most of the odors that get from one apartment to another travel along a common ventilation system. It’s impractical & expensive to give each unit their own vent system out of the building, so building codes allow for a common duct system that makes use of backdraft dampers to prevent what is supposed to be exhaust air from flowing into other units.
It’s easy for these dampers to get dirty & stuck, then they do a very poor job of preventing exhaust air from venting into your apartment. Even when they are clean and work right, they’re still not airtight. If the ventilation system is to blame, you’ll probably notice the smell is strongest in your bathroom and kitchen.
Gosh, I was just thinking about this. I 've moved into an apartment and I go outside on the patio to smoke. If I notice my neighbor next door has the door open I walk over to the grassy portion of the complex. Usually someone will come along and cough. I feel like I am bothering someone wherever I light up.
Of course, I am quitting on August 5th, so this won’t be a problem for long…but I still wonder where it is ‘okay’ to sneak a smoke. I try to be a polite smoker, but I’m not sure you can be polite enough for everyone.
Eve, maybe the landlord could move your mom to a different apartment in the complex? I’m not sure how the complex is set up, but I am on the ground floor and the neighbor I bother with my smoke is also on the ground floor.
“I go outside on the patio to smoke. If I notice my neighbor next door has the door open I walk over to the grassy portion of the complex.”
—Jesus, you have to be the politest person on the face of the earth!
“Of course, I am quitting on August 5th . . .”
—Oh, well . . .
" . . . maybe the landlord could move your mom to a different apartment in the complex?"
—Nah, she’s lived in this apt. 25 years, and moving would be too much of a strain on her, at her age. Besides, who knows who’d be living underneath her then?
My last apartment, that I lived in for 4 and a half years, was smoke free-- it was a clause in the lease that smoking in the building, or on the balcony, was reason for eviction.
Does anyone know if a landlord is able to prohibit smoking outside of an apartment? My bf was smoking on my balcony the other day and my new neighbor came out and demanded that he put out his cigarette because the smoke was wafting into her apartment. He stood his ground, but it got me thinking, did she even have the right to do that? She’s an insufferable snob of course, who felt that it was her right to tell him “you should just quit, it’s easy.” so of course he blew her off, but was he in the wrong for not immediately putting out his butt?
The balcony is also considered outside. Typically when a place, i.e. resteraunt or someone’s home is designated as non-smoking, it’s okay to smoke outside. You can usually smoke on outside patio’s of non-smoking resteruants, unless they have no smoking signs posted. My balcony has no such sign.
Hmmn… Currently: sex, cigarette, sleep. Smoke-banned apartment: sex, get up, find clothes, go outside, smoke, come back inside, get undressed again, sleep.
Ick.
Eve, I’ve already offered two solutions to your mother’s “problem.” If she’s lived in her current apartment for 25 years, then surely she’s had to deal with smoking and cooking odors for most of that time–I’m quite sure that Gerry isn’t the first tenant to smoke there.
Beavers build dams to control their environments. We build laws. Either way beavers and humans are both trying to control external factors like environment and other people.
On the other hand, give an inch and we’ll take a mile. If I respect, love, and care for my body and consciously chose to abuse it through smoking what would stop me from discounting the respect, love and care for other people’s health?
Yet smokers have rights, don’t they?
What came first health and the human body or the cigarette?
Why do we choose to justify our every greed and desire?
If I rented an apartment in a nonsmoking area of a complex, I would sue if I was forced to breathe the smoke of a neighbor on their patio. I was paying for a non-smoking apartment. Smokers don’t understand how much their smoke bothers others. If they did, I hope they would be more considerate.
In regards to the OP, I know of many landlords that have no smoking policies. However, these are usually individuals with smaller places who are more worried about their property values than non-smokers air quality. It actually becomes a cost motivation due to cigarette burns, yellowed walls, odor, etc. It follows along the same line as the no pets rule.
As for smoking outside of the actual unit, I don’t think they can legally regulate that yet.
Both my husband and I are smokers so we usually look for newer apartments with solid construction and autonomous ventilation so we don’t have to deal with pissing someone off.
Now of course we live in New Orleans and the big anti-smoking movement hasn’t really landed here. So it is less of a problem.
I would love a no-smoking apartment for the same reason people like no-smoking hotel rooms: I could be sure the person who lived there before was not a smoker. When I moved into my current apartment, the walls were caked in nicotine. The smell still lingers in the carpet, mattress (it’s a furnished apartment) and foam ceiling tiles. I can even smell it in the bathroom, where the shower surround is also yellowed, and did not get repainted, of course, like the walls. I’m pretty sure it will never go away, no matter how much Febreeze I buy, or how many air fresheners I use.
If I could’ve avoided all this with a no-smoking apartment, it would’ve been great.