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Updated about 1 year ago,
Seek advice for a smoking issue
I'm the President of my HOA. We have an issue where marijuana smoke (legal in MA) is making its way to upstairs unit (which I own) and severely impacting the health and well being of my tenant. The downstairs unit does not have a no-smoking clause in the lease, and neither do the bylaws. Even before this situation, we were going to amend the bylaws to make the building non-smoking and will do so next month. A violation will be $50.
I have two questions:
1) Does the Board have the right to amend bylaws and have them cascade to the owners/tenants mid-lease, or can enforcement only commence with the new tenants that were given the updated bylaws as part of lease signing?
2) If the owner is fined the $50 violation, does he have the right to pass that down to the tenants? And should every attempt be made to collect through traditional means (eg check), or in anticipation of there being repeat violations, does the owner have the right to take it out of the security deposit?
Thanks, Vlad