I think the HOA has the right to ammend the bylaws, but I would think the couple would have been "grandfathered". This is hideous in that it basically forces the couple to sell their place and move.
Most people would gladly trade their freedom for the right to manage their neighbor.
One tenant spent thousands of dollars trying to minimize the odor.
Unfortunately I'd probably rule on the side of the other tenants, because bottom line, their property is being damaged by another tenant.
"I think it's ridiculous. If there's another blizzard, I'm going to be having to stand out on the street, smoking a cigarette," said Colleen Suave.
Well, there is always the option of foregoing the cigarette or taking a drive.
I wonder, why doesn't this 'news' channel use a spell-checker?
I wonder, are these Suave's related to Ricco?
This is a tricky one. It sounds like the units have walls in common, which can be problematic for lots of reasons.
The skids are greased for the slippery slope of constituional rights.
Simply put, the courts are outta control!!
When you share walls and live like sardines...you have to respect the rights of the majority.
Don't like it? Move out!
so they need to sue the builder for building a town house so poorly that mere smoke smell can pass through.
There IS case law for nuisance smells.
Seems to me that they needed to mitigate their smoking somehow so it would not affect the neighbors in the attached townhouse.
This is a neighbor scenario, not a smoking scenario.
Seems to me that if the US Supreme Court say it is OK for homosexual acts to be private in one's bedroom, then this couple ought to "come out", announce that they are "gay" and then smoke away.
My mother-in-law bought a second floor condo and someone moved into the first floor who smokes heavily, and now her condo reeks of smoke because it comes through the air vents from the first floor.
It's really a problem of a poorly designed building (IMHO), but she's basically stuck with the smell or she would have to sell to move out. I'm generally against smoking bans, but when it gets to the point of ruining someone else's home, I might be OK with drawing a line.
All they have to do is run for the board, have some like minded people and change the rules.
The neighbors don't care if these people smoke; they just don't want to smell the smoke, and apparently they do. It would be the same issue if a neighbor was creating a noxious odor outside, or cooking strong-smelling food all the time. The same fight would ensue.
I just read a few days ago about some city council banning all smoking withing the city limits except for single family detached homes. Presumably that means all apartments and hotels/motels. It won't be long until some city or state somewhere bans smoking in your own home if a neighbor objects.
Here's the truth. Smokers are the only minority group on earth that it's OK to discriminate against. People can keep shoving them further and further to the margins and feel self righteous about it. In fact society encourages these modern day Puritans. Being an anti smoking zealot is just about the only area left where folks can exercise their "moral superiority" and get away with it.
Until the Gestapo HOA changes it's ruling, I'd keep a pot of garlic boiling on the stove 24/7.
maybe they should commence a regime of loud, energetic sex, early and often.
let's see the condo nazi's restrict THAT!
"...the rights of a community trump the rights of individual residents..."
Sounds like a quote from Marx or Lenin. Communism.
Will outdoor grilling be next? How about indoor cooking of beef too, just because we know it's going on, and that offends us, too.
-PJ
"I think it's ridiculous. If there's another blizzard, I'm going to be having to stand out on the street, smoking a cigarette.."
;-) I remember when municipal buildings in Anchorage banned indoor smoking in the '80s. You walked out the door and smokers on breaks would be huddled under a warm HVAC unit, boots and parkas, smoking their cigarettes. So funny. As the months went by, the groups got smaller. So to answer this person... yes, you might have stand outside smoking a cigarette; you won't be the first, Honey.
Condos suck.
I agree. But the problem is the door isn't sealing in the smoke.