Inherited tenants who smoke inside

[Jon Coleman]

I'm purchasing my first property and am having a difficult time deciding how to craft the rental agreements for the inherited tenants. I am fortunate to have found a four unit in Milwaukee with three units occupied by long-term tenants (about ten years each) but some of them are smokers. One seems to be infrequent where is the other smokes in the unit so much that the residue is clearly visible on the walls and ceilings.  

I had originally planned to have strict no smoking policies written into the rental agreements to not only disallow smoking in the building but on the property altogether.  That being said, I very much want to keep these long-term tenants. I'm now struggling with how to reconcile the planned smoking policies with tenants who have been able to smoke in their homes for years.  My inclination is to not allow smoking in the building but to allow them to smoke on the deck / patio.  My hope is that since I will be fixing a number of items shortly after purchasing the property that their displeasure at the smoking policy will be partially offset by the improvements to their unit.  On a side note, I recognize the challenge in enforcing this, particularly when there unit will perpetually smell like smoke even if they stop smoking inside.

Have you encountered situations with inherited tenants who currently smoke in the unit? If not, what have your experiences been with smokers and what policies have you set?

[Corina Eufinger]

I can speak from experience that it's hard to change a policy like that mid-tenant.  You can create it, notify them and enforce it...but knowing that you don't seem to want to lose the tenant...would you evict on it? If you aren't willing to evict on a clause then the clause isn't truly worth being in the lease. 

If the unit has already been smoked in for a decade, the pooch is already screwed (LOL).  Stopping them from smoking now isn't worth it.  When they move on start fresh,  Deep clean the unit and use your policy on the next tenant.