What’s the Big Deal?

Knowing whether a tenant is smoking inside a rental property is important, whether the smoking ban is the landlord’s doing, spelled out in the lease or rental agreement, or imposed by federal, state, or local law. Nobody has the inherent right to smoke, not even in a rented house or apartment they pay rent to live in. There are laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of age, race, national origin, and other attributes, but smokers are not a protected category. Banning smoking in rental properties, or restricting where tenants are allowed to smoke, is perfectly legal for the protection of property as well as public health and safety.

While landlords understand the damage that tobacco and/or marijuana smoke can do to a property, tenants may not. To a smoker, no-smoking laws and leases that prohibit smoking may seem arbitrary. When that’s the case, tenants may go to great lengths to hide their smoking and may deny it if called out on it by a landlord.

Sometimes, landlords need to do some detective work to ascertain whether a tenant has been smoking inside a rental unit, perhaps because of complaints from non-smoking tenants or when inspecting a recently vacated apartment for damage. Some landlords require periodic inspections of occupied apartments, each of which provides an opportunity to look around for signs of smoking. So do maintenance visits when there are problems in need of repair.

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Signs of Prohibited Smoking

Some signs of surreptitious smoking are obvious, while others are harder to detect. Rely on your physical senses because they tend to be fairly accurate.

The Nose Knows

If you pick up a whiff of tobacco or other smoke when you pass the door of a rental unit, or wafting off a tenant’s clothes or hair, that’s a sure sign of smoking. People think that spraying air fresheners or lighting scented candles can eliminate the smell of smoke, but at best such actions merely mask the odor. Over time, the odors from smoking sink into fabrics such as curtains and upholstered furniture.

Keep Your Eyes Open

The odor is not the only thing left behind by a smoking tenant. Cigarette smoke builds up painted surfaces as a thin film that leaves walls, woodwork, and ceilings dingy and slightly sticky or tacky feeling. The smell of fresh paint can mean that a tenant is attempting to conceal smoke stains. But sooner or later, those stains will start to bleed through the new paint.

Here are some other clues to look for—burn marks, butts, and buildups of ash. 

Burn marks are an inevitable consequence of smoking. Smoking materials often leave scorched areas, burn marks, or holes burnt into carpeting, furniture, floors, and countertops. 

Cigarette butts also are a dead giveaway. There simply is no way to explain them away. And if those butts are sitting in an ashtray inside a rental unit, you would be well within your rights to confront the tenant with a warning, or perhaps even an eviction letter. Even an empty but dirty ashtray would be difficult to explain. (By the way, not all ashtrays look like ashtrays. Small bowls, coffee cups, and just about any small container can serve as an ashtray.)

Ash build up looks like fine dust on windowsills, shelves, or other surfaces. You don’t need to do the white-glove test on every surface. But be aware that even though a rental unit may have been made “broom clean” pending an inspection, there still may be ash accumulated in corners and crevices.

There’s No Doubt, My Tenant is Smoking

Landlords who include in their leases strong rules prohibiting smoking have the right to evict tenants who break those rules. But does that mean eviction should be their first course of action? 

It can make more sense to have an honest conversation with such a tenant, even if you have strong evidence of smoking. Use it as an opportunity to clarify any confusion as to what the smoking rules are and deliver a strong warning about the likely consequences of any further violations. 

If one tenant has been getting away with smoking in a multifamily property, it’s entirely possible that others may be as well. 

Get in touch today to find out how we can help.