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Stamping out Smoking
By Yardi Blog Staff on Jun 11, 2012 in News | 1 Comment
Last week we told you about the growing national trend of apartment communities that are prohibiting smoking altogether, rather than limiting smokers to certain apartments, and have been backed up by legislation in some states that OKs the restrictions.
This month, Yardi client The Towbes Group of Santa Barbara, which has multifamily and commercial properties on California’s Central Coast, announced that it is going smoke free in all of its apartments. New renters moving in will be prohibited from smoking in their units, and any existing tenants are required to cease smoking on Towbes properties by the end of the year.
The incentive for the change? Financial.
Towbes vice president Jim Carrillo told the Los Angeles Times that the company spends considerably more rehabbing apartments for the next tenant if the previous occupant has been smoking in the unit. Residents with concerns about secondhand smoke and residual smoke that saturates walls and carpets will certainly welcome the change. With 13 apartment communities and nearly 2100 units, Towbes is the first major California property manager to institute a total on-site smoking ban.
What do you think about the new legislation that offers landlords the chance to ban smoking? Would you prefer to rent in a smoke-free community? Or do you think the new legislation is too restrictive?
We applaud the California law SB 332 by Senator Alex Padilla that gives landlords the clear right to ban smoking on their entire properties including inside rental apartments, common areas, outdoor grounds — everywhere!
The stench and poisons of other people’s smoking has made us sick, so we cannot even open a window or get saturated with cancer causing smoke.
Now we want our landlord to use the law to ban all smoking and then *enforce it* by evicting anyone who breaks the smoking ban.
Landlords do save thousands of dollars on rehabbing each apartment where smokers have damaged it by staining walls and carpets, burning holes with cig butts, contaminating central air and heating ducts – costs a thousand to clean them out, more thousands to clean scum off walls and re-paint and re-carpet apartments.
Plus, ever tried to relax in an area where smokers throw their half-burned butts, and your toddler picks them up to “taste” them? Disgusting.
Many thanks to California and Thanks to the Good Landlords who are adopting this new law now in 2012!