"George" wrote in message
...
Pagan wrote:
wrote in message
oups.com...

Does anyone know if such a thing as a *cigarette* smoke detector is
manufactured and sold? A friend I know is thinking of an investment
property he wants to lease as ABSOLUTELY non-cigarette-smoke-friendly.
He's at a loss how he could end a tenant's lease if there's no way of
legally entering and proving cigarette smoking is going on in a
building in our state (PA).


Why he want's so dearly to dictate a rent-paying tenant's private
activities
is a mystery to me, but then, I'm not a liberal.


Not sure what political ideology has to do with this

Nothing, really, but sometimes I like poking at liberals. heh

but I do own rental
properties. Smoking is a *destructive* activity that causes damage to
the property.

Unless we're talking burn marks, I don't see why this would be called
"destructive". It's certainly stinky for most folks, but "damage" implies
something requires repair or replacement, as opposed to cleaning or
painting.

It is very analogous to letting the pets pee on the carpet
and the same reason why rental agreements often prohibit pets.

What about old folks who pee, or worse, on the carpet? Or children? I
don't recall if it's federal or state, but I do know it's against the law to
deny renting property to the elderly or folks with children.

For a similar reason hotels have non smoking rooms because the smell of
the smoke residue is not pleasant and hard to remove and they know they
will have difficulty renting those rooms to people who don't smoke.

I'm told that when someone smokes much in a non-smoking hotel room, the
cleaning crew has to shampoo the carpet, launder the curtains, and sometimes
even clean the walls.

In a hotel room, this is costly and a pain. However, with rental property,
where folks will presumably be spending months or years living there, a good
cleaning is the norm anyway, as well as painting the walls, replacing worn
fixtures, and so forth. Plus, hotels that even bother with no smoking rooms
often have other furniture that must be cleaned, such as chairs and couches.

Anyway, the cheapest and most legally solid thing he can do is demand
the
highest security deposit the law or local economy allows, and stipulate
a
non-smoking clause in the lease. This way, he can gouge them on the
cleaning and possibly carpet replacement.

Gouge them? If they violated the terms of the contract (a lease is a
contract) then the person(s) causing the damage should pay.

I agree, which is why I made the suggestion. Perhaps "gouge" wasn't the
friendliest term to use, but it is accurate.

When you rent a property to someone, you must assume that a certain amount
of "wear and tear" will result. It can, of course, be minimized, by a lease
agreement that prohibits ownership of pets, running a business, or other
activities, but it can't be eliminated. Smoking is the current demon that
folks are complaining about now, but there are many unhealthful and
'destructive' (using your definition) activities that do as much, if not
more, damage to a property. Some folks like 'cultural' foods, which when
cooked produce an almost overpowering 'aroma' and/or large amounts of greasy
smoke. Alcohol abuse and mental problems often result in violence, freely
flowing bodily fluids, even messy suicide. Promiscuity can be messy, and
adds much more wear and tear. Same goes with obesity. Crackhouse, meth
lab, illegal alien staging? Not only can these leave hazardous chemicals
(as in, one whiff can do permanant damage or death), which must then be
cleaned up by EPA standards, but can also cost you the entire property when
the government seizes it.

There are much worse things than smoking.

My only point is, there's just so much you can do to protect your rental
property, and trying to control too many aspects of a renter's life is
silly, intrusive, and most of all, pointless.

Frankly, your lucky if renters actually pay rent, don't **** off the
neighbors, and don't really tear up the place when they move out.

You probably
have never seen the considerable amount of work necessary to remedy the
mess made by smoking.

Good call. I haven't seen a cleanup job that specifically targeted the
effects of smoking.

I have seen the mess renters can make when they move out. I've also seen
how hard it is to evict renters, regardless of what outrageous things they
do. In California, it is easier to evict a tenant with a small fish tank
(no pets) than it is one who isn't paying rent, and knows the system. I've
seen the sigh of relief of a landlord who finally got non-paying tenants out
of a house after over a year of court battles, even after seeing the
destruction they left behind, such as broken windows, holes in the walls,
torn out carpet, dirty diapers littering the back yard, and cockroaches like
you wouldn't believe. They even tore the furnace out of the wall. This I
did clean up.

This house was owned by a regular guy, owner of three other properties
including his home. He sold it to my then employer at a steal, due to the
scumbags living there. If he didn't, he would have been driven to
bankruptcy.

Pagan