Posted on 06/16/2005 5:33:52 AM PDT by Boston Blackie
In a case that tobacco law specialists say is one of the first of its kind in the nation, a Boston Housing Court jury ruled that a South Boston couple could be evicted from their rented water-view loft for heavy smoking, even though smoking was allowed in their lease.
The landlord who rented the Sleeper Street unit to Erin Carey and Ted Baar ordered them out within a week last November, after neighbors complained of the smoke odors filtering into their apartments.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
It wards off potential dates with hot chicks too.
Better yet - let them invest their own money and open one themselves.
3 packs!!! my God! I was a smoker (quit 4 months ago as well, so I'm still a smoker) and never smoked more than a pack a day. This is the longest I have quit, after serveral attempts. I was ready this time though, I was just sick of smoking. I get urges still, especially when someone lights up near me. I WISH the smell bothered me!
The lease allows smoking, but the right of quiet enjoyment of adjacent tenants means the smoker must keep his smoke and its odor from unreasonably disturbing his fellow tenants. You have a right to play music in an apartment too, but if you play it at a volume or at such times that it unreasonably affects your fellow tenants' right of quiet enjoyment of their apartments, that may be grounds for eviction as well.
Whether the right of quiet enjoyment is unreasonably affected is a question of fact according to a reasonable man standard. In practice, that is what juries do: determine what is unacceptable according to a "reasonable man."
The reasonable man standard tends to change over time as cultural mores change. Forty years ago, a jury would likely have determined that the complaining tenants were being unreasonable. But then, 40 years ago fully half of the adult population of the US smoked. The "reasonable man" was a smoker or was likely to share intimate living or work space with a smoker. The smell of cigarette smoke was ubiquitous and most people became accustomed to it to the point that they didn't really notice it. That is no longer the case.
Today the "reasonable man" is far more likely to be a nonsmoker who is accustomed to breathing air untainted by the odor of cigarette smoke. He notices the smell of cigarette smoke immediately and he tends to find it disagreeable and obnoxious.
That may sound like tyranny by the majority, but from the nonsmoker's point of view it is simply his right not to be forced to have his nose and lungs invaded and assaulted by someone else's odious and obnoxious cigarette habit in the nonsmoker's own living space (for which he is also paying rent).
The evicted tenants likely could have smoked in their own apartment without disturbing their neighbors. But like a tenant playing Black Sabbath at 130 db and rattling the walls and floor above and beside the tenant's apartment, the volume of smoke exceeded the comfort level of adjacent tenants.
Congrats, stay the course and fight the urges. The time will come when the smell becomes a nasty stench.
Sounds like a breach of contract or, at the very least, a false advertising claim.
If odors, et al, can seep into other apartments that much, it means other things can do so as well. The landlord needs to address the problem from a building maintenance standpoint, not breach the contract.
I disagree. As long as tobacco is legal, people should be allowed to smoke in their own homes. Blame your landlord.
This isn't a smoking or smoker's trights issue at all.
Most leases don't prohibit talking, but if a tenant talks so loudly the neighbors complain the landlord has the right to evict them.
I think you and 1st freedom both have points. If you live in an apartment, you can't complain about a little noise from neighbors, the occasional traffic and party noise, and even cooking odors from time to time. But continuous noise and smells, even (especially?) smoke from others' apartments shouldn't have to be condoned. There is too much grief given to smokers, but many smokers are themselves too sensitive to legitimate complaints. These issues should have been resolved in the parties' leases. If you are asthmatic, insist on no smoking in nearby apartments at the outset of your lease. On the other hand, if you smoke so much that it infiltrates your neighbors' places, that is probably beyond reasonable expectations. We might disagree about where the point is, but at some point reasonable activities become unreasonable in their duration or concentration. It is certainly ok to have a few friends over every once in a while, but 25 people partying every night would be excessive in most people's opinion. How much cigarette smoke is too much? I'm glad I own my home so I don't have to be in that argument.
I smoke, and i'm gearing up to quit, but I've always tried to be considerate of my smoking, ever since I quit once for a few months, and could finally smell the after-effects of smoking - us smokers simply can't smell it!
I live in an apartment, and will be for a while longer here in the wonderful and so very affordable San Francisco Bay Area housing market (sarcasm), and my downstairs neighbor, who's a good friend of mine, commented that my smoke gets blown right in her windows. So, I went and invested in one of those tower air filters, with ionizer, and run it when i'm home, problem solved! I bought bigger than I need, so it's very efficient at cleaning out the air. The ones the Sharper Image are the best, from what I'm told, but pricey - the one I got at Target was $60.
After using it for 6 months, I can't see NOT having one while continuing to smoke, and after - it removes cooking smells, dust, pollen, I love it! I have neighbors that smoke pot, which is just as pervasive as cigarette smoke, and it gives me an instant headache - no more!
A reasonable approach to heavy smokers would be to have the landlord provide a few filters like this, or contribute towards them. They work, nobody has to be evicted, and the heavy smokers will most likely love the cleaner air, along with their neighbors.
It also helps with that well-known side effect of smoking, where everything in the room where you smoke is covered in a layer of nicotine and residue. I HATE that, and since running my filters, there's very little of it.
Granted, I'm not a 3-pack a day smoker, but still...I'm frustrated and angry at the anti-smoking jihad, but there can be reasonable solutions, and us smokers can be considerate in close quarters.
How surprising, in the incestuous world of smoking Nazis, that Daynard and John Banzhaf are buddies.
Oh wait, they're professors, so they must "know."
How about a compromise? Have the smoker get some type of ventilation so the smoke goes outside?
Property owners have been sued by people who claim they can smell smoke more than 100 yards away. So where does it stop?
At the property line. At the city limits line? At the county line? At the state line? Smoking is only step one in a long process of allowing government to dictate a long list of what people can and can't do.
Boy, was I steaming! Yep, "unlimited" was a false claim. I couldn't believe it when I got my first warning. I wrote to them, but still, after the third warning, they disconnected me. I need to have my Internet running most of the day so I was really thankful when I got Road Runner. Now I can relax and not be treated like a child for being online.
Uh oh.... duck.... incoming.... You are going to be totally crucified by the very meanspirited people who worship the god of Nicotine, which they like to carefully wrap inside their supposed concerns for freedom. I love FR but am always intrigued by how downright cruel and nasty people can be when veiled by anonymity.
How about a good air filter??
The only thing worse than the tyranny of big government is the tyranny of your neighbors and local thugs.
I'm with you! The ionizer's are wonderful! I have had mine now for a few months. Less pollen and dust. I love it!
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