Tenant’s guest is smoking and loud

[Vanessa S.]

Hello everyone- I thought I found a great tenant but my upstairs neighbors have complained that the tenant’s guest smokes cigarettes and marijuana in the patio and the smoke drifts up into their unit. Per my rental agreement, there is a clause that specifically says “smoking and drug use are prohibited.” It further states that if the tenant or tenant’s guests are in violation of the rental agreement, this is grounds for termination.

Furthermore, the upstairs neighbors says the same guest of the tenant plays video games really loudly and they can hear the noise from that.

These complaints relate to the guest and not the tenant. The tenant herself is extremely nice and met all of my criteria when I screened her. The issues lie with her guest.

I’ve never encountered a tenant blatantly violating the rental agreement with smoking. I realize her argument will be the smoking takes place outside but my issue with that is the smoke and its odor can be brought in through clothing, hair and if the windows of the building are opened.

How would you proceed with this? What steps should be taken to ensure a swift resolution?

Thanks in advance!

[Dominic A.]

@Vanessa S.

Great replies so far 👍

This is a violation of the lease. Have a polite conversation about the violation and hand them a written notice (or follow up with a summary email if your state counts that as valid notice).

I can’t speak to your specific lease, but usually anyone who stays there longer than 3-5 days is technically supposed to be on the lease in some way. This is usually a grey area, and not something landlords enforce unless they have reason to, but you should make it clear (nicely) that the behavior of the guest constitutes reason to enforce such rules.

You are usually within rights to ban someone (who is not on the lease) from your property as well. Particularly if they pose a safety or health threat to other tenants or neighbors.

This doesn’t need to be (and shouldn’t become) a big issue; but proceeded with the knowledge that you have a few options and are within rights.