Topic: Help! Our community will be going smoke free soon!

Help! Our community will be going smoke free soon! I would love some suggestions to help implement this!

Make one area that people are allowed to smoke at then gradually do away with it

Bianca Carlson that would be a good start but we have townhomes so they could just come out on their porch but they are saying no smoking with in 25 feet of the building. It was stated today it has to be 25 feet due to the fact that someone's window could be open & receive the 2nd hand smoke.

You start by saying effective immediately no smoking anywhere on site EXCEPT for X location. For us, this will be by the road in between two apartment buildings in a covered area. If you eliminate smoking, the smokers will be pissed and never abide by it. But if you give them the alternative, they will likely do as asked as long as it is not a major inconvenience to access that designated area

I really don't have an area to designate that would be fair to everyone.

You could always pick a few areas as designated smoking areas. Making an area that is designated for it makes integration of this new rule much smoother as easier for people to adapt to rather than people just simply not having any place to go. If they live there and they smoke they will still need a place to smoke and cannot be expected to quit cold turkey

There is a lot of help on the internet. We did it a couple of years ago. Now we have no smoking anywhere on the property. Message me if you need help to find the info. Worked out very well.

Vaping as well?

We just implemented in Jan. Has to be in lease; new residents sign new lease language, current resident at time of renewal. Did a soft announcement of the change coming 90 days prior to policy went into effect and a formal 30 days. Check lease to determine when you have to notify of amendments to any terms of lease.

Our policy is for interior, so everyone has to go outside. Includes any form of smoking, vaping, e cigs, medicinal marijuana etc.

We think that it is going to be that you can smoke period on the property. I hope that we can start out this way anyway. Why would e cigarettes have to go outside? They don't create any smoke. Our company is also anti medicinal marijuana that is smoked.

What will your companies policy be on those who are medical MJ, if they bring an accommodation to the office.. make sure to have a plan for this as well as it will happen.

The stance is that it is still illegal by The Federal government & in Michigan you have to have a medical marijuana card. Also since we have loans with HUD & have subsidized housing at one of our sites they are requiring us to enforce the smoking of medical marijuana. There are other ways to receive the benefits of marijuana if it is truly needed by the resident as a patient. Since we will be banning smoking period this would go along with it.

As you all should be aware what Rose stated is true. But for conventional, Fair Housing, you make a policy for one is has to be for all so with that said that means any inhalant.

For it to be enforceable term and condition of the lease. Our rules and regulations, resident handbook are also agreeable terms of our lease which reiterates the non-smoking policy.

Nancy Alex It is good to have a plan.. I know we had some issues with this but we have been dealing with this one at a time and as found :) Just good to have everyone on the same plan. I am in Oregon so it is a little different .. though still Fed illegal not state..

Rose Gallifrey we just found out about this a couple of weeks ago so we are a little freaked out about it. I'm sure things will work out but I have a feeling it's going to be a big headache.

Let me add that you should refer to your state guidelines and federal.

There is a no smoking addendum in Blue Moon.

We currently have No smoking 10 feet from property lines.. yepp property line...

We did a 90 day notice to all.. a 60 and a 30 and a "today is the day notice" .. all new residents were signing new language.. other residents could still be/do until new lease but within 1 year we had it done and most everyone was done by 3 months after today is the day notice .. but nice reminders ..

It actually works out well, better than I anticipated. Not sure which state you are in but for states where marijuana is legal it helps control that situation too!

What situation is that, exactly, since it IS legal, and all?????

It's difficult to manage marijuana smoking, the smell disrupts the neighbors but since it's legal, is one of those challenges you have to deal with. But if your community is smoke free you now have the right to tell them they can't smoke it.

After fighting for decades for legality, now someone with little to no specialized understanding tells them they either need to move or stop using their medication. That totally sucks.

They can use edibles to manage their pain so that's not a fair statement.

Nancy different forms are prescribed for different ailments. Try again.

Edibles make a lot of people nauseous or they don’t tolerate them. Just saying. I know lots of legal users and pain is not necessarily the primary reason for prescription.

Not sure what state you are in. Check with your local county for their smoke free programs. A lot of them will give free information to your residents on where to find help to quit. This may help reduce the amount of move outs you have due to the new change.

How do you do that when you have residents already living there that smoke and how will you control this

Question! Are you willing to release smokers from their lease without penalty?

Don't know yet...good question. We are just now learning of this change we have to make so this will be going on my list. Thanks!

I did it in one fell swoop. Sent out a letter to all of our properties with an effective date of being smoke-free and stating the only place they could smoke is outside, including on their patios or balconies. But we made it quite clear that if we caught them smoking in the building it would be a five day notice for breach of lease. Had maybe a handful of issues that were quickly resolved with aforementioned five day notice

I hope they allow it outside. That would be so much easier at first! They probably are going to go no smoking on the Property period!

NO SMOKING LEASE ADDENDUM in red book

We have had 2 buildings that are smoke free for 19 years. I would like to know how you handled it for a whole property.

Thanks
Phyllis Mardian

Is this a city ordinance? If so start with that and quote the ordinance. I have property in Sunnyvale and San Mateo, CA, both have a smoke free ordinance.

I attached what we used. We do not offer a designated area. Also, you need to post signs, you can order online through Peachtree or other sign companies.

I attached two documents we used in two cities that don't allow smoking, also you will need to post signs at all entrances to the community.

My email below didn't take the attachments I was sending.

We are doing the same, switching from designated areas only to smoke free. We gave everyone notice about 6 months ahead of time and implemented October 1. We have started off giving reminders if we see people smoking or we get a complaint. From there we will begin issuing violation notices and starting the process toward moving out if there is a continuing problem. We were concerned about loosing tenants, but most everyone has been very positive and respectful.

Hey Nancy,
In Modesto, before smoke free was a thing in California, a client agreed with my suggestion to go smoke free in a couple of buildings. Once we started with those buildings, it was easier to just go smoke free in whole community. There were no addenda forms so we created. These were B properties and we expected blow back. Quite the contrary.
Here's what we learned - if you take away an area to smoke, you MUST give another area because smokers are going to smoke so they will stand outside the building annoying residents and tossing the butts.
Extreme fines are necessary and the leases stated they would be evicted for non compliance on the second fine.
Back to the area - our best area was partially covered by a carport, next to the enclosed dumpster area with provided butt disposal containers and a picnic table. Tried to make it nice since it WAS by the dumpster but we couldn't take a parking space.
Don't be worried - you will be so delighted with the ease of your residents adjustment!