Jury finds heavy smoking to be grounds for eviction

The Boston Globe ^ | By Ralph Ranalli and Jonathan Saltzman | June 16, 2005

[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.

[SheLion]

Oh wait, they're professors, so they must "know."

Thanks for the link.

Just like Glantz calling himself an MD. He is not a Doctor!

[SheLion]

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.

Tolerance is the key issue here.  Not government intervention.  If we allow government to control any aspect of our lives with a legal product, it won't stop with just smoking.

Oh but wait!  The government already has their teeth into private businesses by forcing smoking bans on them.  It has already started.

[Protagoras]

It's either 1. He goes, or 2. The landlord releases me from my lease.

Was smoking allowed in your lease? If so, you screwed up, oh well. None of the above. Ta ta.

[Protagoras]

More proof either smokers have no clue how offensive cig smoke is or smokers are supremely selfish.

More proof that these particular non smoking people are losers who won't live up to their agreements and the consequences of them.

[desherwood7]

Isn't this what George Orwell wrote about in 1984?

[Madame Dufarge]

LOL!!

[Protagoras]

I'm gonna show this article to my landlord.

For what purpose?

[Madame Dufarge]

You're impervious to irony, aren't you?

[Protagoras]

How about a compromise? Have the smoker get some type of ventilation so the smoke goes outside?

Sure, who pays for it?

[Madame Dufarge]

Get a load of this website I just stumbled on.

Wonder how many of the usual suspect FReepers post to it?

Neurotics 'R Us

[SheLion]

OMG! I try to stay away from sites like that. Isn't that disgusting?!

We have to put up with enough of the anti's right here on our own forum. So I don't go to those trashy snide hideous anti-smoking uglies. ugh!

[Raycpa]

Those same forbears banned public smoking.

[Raycpa]

The landlord is a nonsmoker?

[Protagoras]

The people who want to break their agreements are moral slobs.

[Raycpa]

You are right. Those slime balls who violated the ''any nuisance; any offensive noise, odor or fumes; or any hazard to health" clause of their agreement are scum.

[Dr. Scarpetta]

I live in an apartment above a heavy smoker, and it simply rises into my apartment. I have asthma, and it's certainly makes me ill. In addition, my apartment smells like I am a heavy smoker. Now you tell me, since I don't choose to smoke, what the solution is? It's either 1. He goes, or 2. The landlord releases me from my lease. Remember, your rights stop where my body begins. In this case you could say your rights stop where your apartment walls end, and if your actions go beyond your walls, then you are subject to eviction, etc.

I agree with you, but as a last resort, I'd move because of your health Both of my daughters got married within the last 18 months, and the receptions were non-smoking. The chain smokers were free to go outside in the beautiful evening, and the rest of us enjoyed clean air inside.

[tomakaze]

re:Those same forbears banned public smoking.
 
Crackah please...

[gidget7]

Being a member of society means compromising, sadly that escapes a lot of the American public.

Society cannot and should not, ban everything that offends someones sensibilities, or that someone is allergic to. As has been pointed out, there are much worse things out there, we are exposed to day in and day out, even wood burning, which by the way gives off the same fumes if you will, as cigarette smoke.

[gidget7]

Touche' Incense is awful, it gets into your nose and you smell it for hours after.

[af_vet_1981]

I agree with the ruling because landlords need more rights (and I do hate smoking) to balance the bias toward renters in the courts.