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Yes You Can Choose
To Make Your Buildings Smokefree!
1. People who smoke are not protected by state and
federal anti-discrimination laws.
2. It is legal to advertise an apartment as "smokefree."
3. It is legal to ask tenants to acknowledge in the lease or month-to-month
rental agreement that they do not smoke and/or will not smoke
in the unit they are renting from you. In a month-to-month rental
agreement, the tenant agrees that if they begin smoking, they
will move in thirty days.
4. Less that 19% of California adults are still smoking, and 70-90%
of those still smoking want to quit.
Suggestions for creating a smokefree building
in an apartment complex with more than one building
1. Begin with a survey of existing buildings. Inform
tenants that certain buildings in the complex will be established
as smokefree buildings. Ask tenants if they wish to reside in
a smokefree building. Identify which buildings have the most tenants
how desire a smokefree building. (If the survey is done door-to-door,
it will be easier to identify which tenants smoke.)
2. Select the building which has the fewest tenants who smoke
as the building which will become smokefree. As the people who
smoke move out, clean the units thoroughly and rent them to non-smoking
tenants.
3. Or identify apartments in other buildings which are comparable
to the apartments occupied by tenants who smoke.
4. Offer the tenants who smoke the opportunity to move to a newly
refurbished unit, comparable to the one they already occupy. As
an added inducement, offer to pay half the moving costs.
5. Smokefree buildings will require less maintenance over the
long term. Apartments in smokefree buildings will be easier to
prepare for new tenants.
Preparing for Tenants Who Smoke
1. Many apartment owners already require an additional
security deposit for small pets. Apartment owners can also impose
an additional fee when renting an apartment to a new tenant who
smokes. You can insert certain clauses in your rental agreements
and addendums that make the tenant responsible for any damage
caused by smoking. For example, use the clause "tenant responsible
for any damage to draperies, carpets, paint, and other interior
surfaces as a result of tar and nicotine deposits due to smoking."
2. Establish a smokefree policy in common areas of all buildings
in the complex. Outdoor areas around swimming pools and bar-b-que
areas could also be designated smokefree. If you set up areas
where people can smoke, be sure the smoke is not drifting into
another tenant's unit.
3. These kinds of policies can help to reduce friction between
tenants since Californians are very conscious of the hazards of
secondhand smoke.
The Smokefree Apartment House Registry is administered
by S.A.F.E. (Smokefree Air For Everyone) and Community Partners,
Los Angeles. The Registry is made possible by funds through the
Proposition 99 Tax Initiative. |
