Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Landlord/Tenant Issues: Banning Smoking for Residential Tenants

If you are a landlord and you want to make your building a non-smoking building, then you can thanks to a new California law in effect January 1, 2012. However, if your leases currently allow smoking in certain areas of the property then you may have a problem. The new law makes clear the owner’s right to limit smoking in units, but also makes clear that an existing right to smoke is a material provision of the rental agreement, whether it is stated as material or not.

For new tenants, the lease or rental agreement should specify the areas on the property where smoking is prohibited. For existing tenants, a ban on smoking cigarettes or other tobacco products in any part of the property in which smoking was previously allowed does constitute a change of the terms of the tenancy, which requires adequate notice in writing. Therefore, tenants on a month to month rental agreement can be given 30 days’ notice of the smoking ban.

If existing tenants are under a longer term tenancy, then the parties would need to enter into a new agreement on expiration of the existing agreement or modify the existing agreement in writing. It is clear, now landlords have legislative authority to ban smoking if they choose to. This ban can decrease the risk of accidental fires and can even reduce fire insurance premiums. 

3 comments:

  1. Woah! This would not be the type of apartment that I want to live in. I am a chain smoker and I cant live without sipping a cigar!

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  2. I appreciate all of the information that you have shared. Thank you for the hard work!
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  3. I have recently had a problem with my apartments' maintenance workers being in my home several times when I have come home from work. My contract specifically says that, "the managers shall give 24 hours notice before entering any apartment." I know this says managers specifically, but could this also apply to maintenance workers for a non-emergency issue?

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