Toolkits to help with tobacco in multi-unit housing
Landlords
Why go smoke-free?
As a serious health hazard, smoking sets you up for potential complaints and even lawsuits. Plus, indoor smoking can have lasting damage on your property, for which you'll likely end up responsible. Read on to see how you, as a landlord, can minimize the effects of secondhand smoke on your assets and your tenants.
A hazard for tenants. A liability for you.
Smoking damages your units and is a fire hazard. But did you know that secondhand smoke drifting between apartments is a serious health hazard that could make you vulnerable to lawsuits?
Secondhand smoke can interfere with disabled tenants' ability to have equal access to and enjoyment of their housing. Depending on the case, certain tenants may be able to use the Americans with Disabilities Act and/or the Fair Housing Act to bring legal action against landlords for not making reasonable accommodations to protect them from secondhand smoke. Since air-sealing and ventilation technologies do not keep out secondhand smoke, the most reasonable way to accommodate tenants may be to create smoking restrictions or to move smokers and nonsmokers into separate buildings.
Regarding secondhand smoke, the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) states, "Currently, the only way to effectively eliminate health risks associated with indoor exposure is to ban smoking activity."
Nonsmoking tenants can bring legal action against the landlord or the smoking tenants under several common law theories, including:
- Breach of the covenant of quiet enjoyment
- Negligence
- Nuisance
- Breach of the implied warranty of habitability
- Battery
- Intentional infliction of emotional distress
- Trespass
- Constructive eviction
Smoking puts your building at serious risk.
Risk of Fire
Landlords universally recognize the liabilities and hazards of having an indoor smoker as a resident. "I've had two places burn down because of cigarettes," noted one landlord.
Risk of Maintenance Issues
Indoor smoking causes major expenses in both time and material to repair, refurbish, and clean up rental units in which tenants have smoked consistently. Damage includes smell, stains on walls, and burns in carpets and countertops, as well as permanent damage caused by smokers who carelessly put out butts and leave cigarettes burning.
Landlords frequently report that preparing a smoking unit for a new lessee can cost twice as much as it does for a nonsmoking unit. A 2004-2005 study reported that, on average, it cost $550 to prepare a nonsmoking unit for a new lessee, compared with $1,070-$1,670 for a unit occupied by a smoker (statistics vary greatly depending on the area covered by carpet, the amount of damage, etc.).
Risk of Lowered Resale Value
Recent research suggests that smoke-free apartment buildings may have increased resale value, should you ever decide to sell your building. As the number of public places where a person can smoke has decreased, so has the number of home buyers who are even willing to consider a house occupied by indoor smokers. (New York Times, "Real Estate & Secondhand Smoke: On Tobacco Road, It's a Tougher Sell," February 8, 2004.)
When some tenants smoke, all your tenants smoke.
People have a right to live in a place that doesn't pose a significant risk to their health and well-being. The only way to fully protect your tenants from secondhand smoke is through 100% smoke-free environments.
- Approximately 41,000 deaths annually in the U.S. result from diseases caused by secondhand smoke.
- Thousands more people suffer from chronic and debilitating conditions caused by these diseases, including the effects of emphysema, cancer, heart disease, stroke, chronic bronchitis, and asthma.
- Secondhand smoke causes lung and other cancers as well as heart disease.
- Secondhand smoke causes or exacerbates respiratory tract infections, such as pneumonia and bronchitis, especially in infants, children, and older individuals.
- Secondhand smoke causes increased risk of sudden infant death syndrome and middle-ear infections in children.
- Secondhand smoke is a major health threat to individuals with asthma - sometimes fatal.
- Secondhand smoke cannot be controlled by ventilation, air cleaning, or the separation of smokers from nonsmokers. The only solution to this problem is to make buildings smoke-free.
- Indoor tobacco smoke leaves behind a residue called "thirdhand smoke," which is particularly dangerous to young children. The residue clings to carpets, upholstery, and smokers themselves, and can contain heavy metals, carcinogens, radioactive materials, and other toxins. Children are especially susceptible to thirdhand smoke because they absorb or ingest this residue when playing on the floor or upholstery.
Remember: The worse smoking is for your tenants, the worse it is for you.
Shared walls. Shared air. Shared risk.
Secondhand smoke and vape aerosol don't stop at the walls. They travel between units, harming everyone - especially those with asthma - and lowering your property's value. Protect your tenants and your investment by adopting a smoke-free policy. Check out the resources below to make the change.
Spread the wordThree Steps to Implementing a Smoke-Free Policy
Going officially smoke-free is the only way to truly protect yourself, your building, and your tenants from the dangers of tobacco use. While you may receive backlash from your smoking tenants, it is your right - and in everyone's best interest - to ban smoking in your properties.
Step 1
Develop Your Policy
Be sure to be as detailed as possible, and at a bare minimum, include the following:
- List of the places where smoking is and is not allowed
- Individuals the policy applies to (tenants, guests, staff, service people, etc.)
- Those responsible for enforcing the rule
- Consequences for violations
- Effective date of the policy
- Definition of smoking
- Whether to have a designated smoking area outside (make sure the designated area is located 25 feet away from doors, windows, and major walkways)
Things to remember:
Opening a new building as smoke-free is easy. But with existing buildings, you may need to phase in the policy as leases are renewed. You may want to survey tenants to gauge their feelings on the matter.
Step 2
Announce Your Policy
There are various ways you can announce your new policy, and some may work better for you based on your relationship with tenants, typical style of communication with tenants, and the basis on which you're able to alter lease terms. They include:
- Holding a meeting
- Sending memos to tenants
- Talking to individual tenants
- Posting flyers in the halls
- Giving tenants at least 30 days' notice (60 to 90 is better)
- Pointing out the rule when tenants sign or renew their lease
- Posting signs and stickers in your building
- Marketing your building as smoking-restricted
Things to remember:
- Giving your tenants advance notice may help you gain compliance.
- Use our Tenant Handout to help with communication.
- Use our Model Resident Notification Letter to announce your policy.
- Smoking is not a legal right.
Step 3
Enforce Your Policy
Enforce your smoking restrictions just as you would any other rule.
- Give tenants advance notice.
- Explain the rules when prospective tenants tour the property.
- Explain the smoking restrictions again when tenants sign their lease or lease renewal.
- Market your property as smoking-restricted.
- Post signs and stickers in smoking-restricted areas.
- Train your management and maintenance staff on smoking restrictions and make sure they understand that these restrictions are a priority.
- Consider creating a designated outdoor area for smoking if you think it would help with compliance.
- Move receptacles for smoking materials as well as applicable signs to a reasonable distance (25 feet) from building entrances, windows, and ventilation intakes.
Things to remember:
Tenants who fail to comply are in breach of the lease and could be evicted.
Send our sample warning letter to tenants who violate the policy.
Landlord Resources
Smoke-Free Flyer
This helpful flyer encourages your tenants to support a smoke-free policy and to stop smoking indoors. Distribute this flyer in common spaces, at tenant meetings, or by mail.
Smoke-Free Poster
This helpful poster encourages your tenants to help fight for smoke-free living and to stop smoking indoors. Display this in high-traffic areas like lobbies, entryways, or mailrooms to raise awareness and build support.
Smoke-Free Rack Card
This helpful resource informs your tenants about the harm of smoking indoors, especially to those with asthma. Display this handout in high-traffic areas like lobbies and entryways, or share by mail.A compilation of smoke-free housing toolkits and guidance
Use in addition to what you’ll find on this page.Compilation of smoke-free housing surveys
Studies with findings in support of smoke-free housing.Model smoke-free housing lease addendum
Use to adjust terms of leases when implementing your policy.Sample tenant survey
Use to gauge interest and opinions when deciding whether to go smoke-free.Smoke-free poster
Use to spread the word about your smoke-free policy to tenants and visitors.Infiltration of secondhand smoke into condominiums, apartments, and other multiunit dwellings
Law synopsis by the Tobacco Control Legal Consortium.
Tools
Smoke-free social media posts for landlords.
Share these posts to spread the word about the dangers of indoor smoking and encourage other landlords and property managers to adopt smoke-free policies. Posts also send viewers to this site for more valuable information and resources. Available for Facebook, X, and Instagram.
FAQs
Reduced damage and costs: Smoking restrictions are one of the easiest ways to reduce damage to your units and lower turnover costs. Such a policy protects you from smell, stains, and burns, as well as fire risk. Turnover costs are cheaper because smoke-free apartments cost less to clean, repair, and repaint.
Better marketability: Smoking restrictions keep units in better condition, making them more attractive to prospective tenants and buyers. They’ll also make your entire property more attractive, as more and more renters are seeking out smoke-free housing.
You own the building. This is your property, and you have the right to set reasonable rules that protect your building. You may lawfully regulate tenant behavior that impacts other tenants or presents a risk to the unit or building. That includes pet policies, noise restrictions, prohibition on water beds, occupancy limits, restrictions on grilling, and more. With that power, you may restrict smoking on your property, even inside individual units.
No. According to law, smoking is not a disability. Because of this, it cannot be used to ask for accommodations. However, tenants who do have disabilities may have a legal right to ask for accommodations to restrict smoking.
Here are some suggestions:
- Advertise your units as being subject to indoor smoking restrictions; this attracts tenants who either don’t smoke or smoke outside only.
- Describe the smoking restrictions fully in your lease agreement and talk to your tenants about these restrictions when you show the property and when tenants sign the lease. Require tenants to initial the provision.
- Post signs in the building and on the property.
- Tell tenants that if they smoke in their units, they will be financially responsible for bringing the unit back to proper condition, which could cost thousands of dollars.
- Have a system of warnings, fines, and evictions for tenants who fail to follow the smoking rule, just like any other rule.
- Visit the properties regularly and perform inspections.
- Provide a designated smoking area outside, away from windows and doors.
Yes. As of July 31, 2018, all public housing agencies are legally required to prohibit lit tobacco products (cigarettes, cigars, pipes, and hookahs) in all living units, indoor common areas, and administrative offices, as well as all outdoor areas within 25 feet of housing and administrative office buildings. View the HUD Smoke-Free Policy in Public Housing Guidebook for more information.