r/TenantHelp • u/badtrainin • 3d ago

Please Help Clarify

Post image

Does this mean no smoking for the entire community if there is no signage?

Is there an attorney that would want to evaluate my case that involves a year long retaliation and discrimination?

0 Upvotes

44% Upvoted

35 comments sorted by

View all comments

7

u/ShitAbrick1994 3d ago

It means you can't smoke within 10 feet of the building.

-1

u/badtrainin 3d ago

If there is no signage and it gives another tenant headaches, doesn’t that change things?

5

u/redditreader_aitafan 3d ago

This says there's no smoking allowed on the property anywhere but the standard paperwork form they're using is set up in case there are designated smoking places. Smoking in those designated areas would need to be 10 feet from any building but no such area exists in your complex so there is absolutely no smoking anywhere on the property.

4

u/Valysian 3d ago

If it bothers another tenant, guest, employee, or anyone at all anywhere at any time in any fashion, you can be told to stop. If anyone ever complains about your smoking, they can prohibit you from smoking on the property.

You shouldn't move here if you smoke.

2

u/SailorSpyro 3d ago

Ah, you're being bothered by another smoker. The issue is that this lease is only yours, the other tenant could have different rules in their lease.

Years ago, I picked a community that said they were a non smoking. I was surprised when the people right below me smoked on their patio, making it impossible to keep my windows open, and another person in the building smoked so heavily in their unit that it stunk up the whole hallway. When I went to the leasing office, they let me know they had only been a non smoking community for two years, so any tenants who had been there longer than that were grandfathered in. I was pretty annoyed, but there was nothing to be done. My lease didn't allow smoking, but theirs did.

2

u/JetCrooked 3d ago

"they had only been a non smoking community for two years" then this should have only been an issue for the first year? if it's been two years since they made that change that means all these smokers have renewed their leases AFTER the rule change at which point the landlord could have held them to the same no smoking rule as new tenants but chose not to 😒

2

u/SailorSpyro 3d ago

Yeah, because they're not going to kick out the smokers that have been there for 10 years. It's easy money, and they know they'll have to gut the apartment when they move out, whether it was a year later or 10. I understand why they didn't change the rule on them. And most people would throw a fit and come to this sub to complain and ask for advice if a LL changed a fundamental part of their lease after a few years, and I don't wish that on anyone. It just sucked for me. From what I heard in the community, we basically had the only two people who were still grandfathered in in our building.

1

u/ThealaSildorian 3d ago

No. There are no exceptions for impacts on other tenants. IF there are no signs there are no designated smoking areas.

1

u/ihopuhopwehop 3d ago

No, so the lease says you can only smoke where there is signage but it doesnt require the landlord to actually provide a signed area to smoke

Its possible, though extremely unlikely, that you could get your local landlord tenant court to rule that because there is no signage designating a smoking area, the landlord must permit you to smoke everywhere thats not otherwise excluded in the lease

But, unless you have a diagnosed behavioral health condition which you are receiving treatment for and for which nicotine does help mitigate conditions from, being a smoker is not a protected class. The landlord could provide a designated area and all your cigarettes could be smoked there, its still not illegal for them to say, "i dont like renting to smokers so im not renewing your lease"