Transforming to Non-smoking

[Christine Swaidan]

We've never had a policy one way or another about smoking. Just recently I have decided that I don't want to deal with the aftermath of our smoking tenants and have started insisting on non-smokers only. Easy to implement whenever we have a turnover in a SFR.

Not as clear to me is how to start this process in multi-family properties where smokers are already in place. For now I have made it known that all new tenants must not smoke. 

Here's my delema.  We are rehabbing a unit and it is one of the few we have with private outdoor space. Current smoker tenant is eyeing it as a possible transfer. Nine months ago she transferred from an upstairs newly refurbished apartment to a downstairs unit. She had been in the first unit only 4 months and it was totally smoked out. Guess the only way to deal with this particular situation is to not allow her to transfer. 

The bigger question is can I just say no to smokers even though we have smokers already living in the building?

[Jeff Bridges]

Gah, that must be hard renovating a unit and have a tenant move after just 4 months and leave it smoked out. There clearly is no financial benefit to you to have the tenant move to more desirable units since they ruin each unit with their smoke damage. I don't think you have a real dilemma, you just think there is some perceived threat that your tenant will move out if you don't constantly placate them by moving them into the latest refurbished unit so they can ruin it. Instead, focus on your marketing and get the vacancy filled so you can fill it with good tenants that are screened to be non-smokers so you can be on your way to convert the building to smoke-free. If your existing tenant becomes unhappy with their current unit, its not financially prudent to move them to different units just to make them happy for a short period of time before they become unhappy again. Make sure your leases going forward have that no-smoking in unit policy and identify the clean up costs for smoking in a non-smoking unit. I don't believe smokers can live in a non-smoking unit without violating the rules, so I also don't accept existing smokers for that reason. You'll regret it if you did.

I just advertise on my SFRs that we do not accept smokers, but I'm not a multifamily landlord.