Tenants and smoking regulations
Smokers are feeling more and more under threat nowadays. Although its all for their own good of course. Whats the situation with rented property?
The Smoke-free (Exemptions and Vehicles) Regulations 2007 (and the Welsh equivalent) now make it an offence to smoke in the shared parts of residential premises. So that means hallways, common stairways, corridors etc.
Smoking in shared houses
What about the living areas in shared houses? This depends. If the tenants all have their own individual tenancy agreements for their own room, then the shared parts of the house will fall within the regulations and smoking is not allowed. However if the tenants are all sharing jointly and severally, it will depend on the terms of their tenancy agreement.
So far as the tenants individual rooms are concerned (if they have their own tenancy agreement for this) or houses and flats rented under the one tenancy agreement are concerned, if the landlord permits smoking this is not illegal.
However many landlords do not allow smoking, worried about the potential for fire (particularly where tenants smoke in bed) . If you smoke anyway, in breach of a prohibition in your tenancy agreement, this is potentially a ground for possession.
More likely however are substantial deductions from your deposit at the end of the tenancy to cover the cost of cleaning and dealing with the smoke damage that will have been done to the interior walls and fabrics in the room.
So if you are a tenant smoker you may find it very difficult to find somewhere where you can smoke at home, and you will probably be reduced to shivering outside. Not good in this cold weather. Maybe now would be a good time to give it up …
See more help for tenants on Landlord Law.
A perrenial problem this one Tessa
Whenever I run courses on security of tenure and talk about the concept of unfair terms in tenancy agreements everyone raises this subject as a “What about…..” question.
I never feel entirely happy with my answer either. My take on agreements is that a person has the right to occupy in “Tenant-Like manner”, if that is true is smoking a ‘Tenant-Like’ thing to do? If it is then would a ‘No Smoking’ clause in an agreement be unenforceable?
If the furniture and curtains end up stinking would that then be deemed simply “Allowing the condition of the property to deteriorate (Ground 13).
On the other hand, for a non smoker like myself I can smell a cigarette is someone had one 8 hours ago and to my mind you can never get the smell out of a room and would deem it a reasonable clause.
I owuld love to know of any defintive case law on this.
Also what about people advertising for “Vegetarian’s only”, I’ve seen that several times