MISmoke-Free Apartments landlords

Tenants' Rights

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Your Resources

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Did You Know
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Tenants

As a tenant in a rental property, you have the right to live free of a significant cause of illness in the home and a major cause of preventable death in the United States: secondhand smoke.

With all the controversy surrounding this issue, you may find it difficult to understand what your non-smoking rights are. On this site you will find the information you need to live in a smoke-free environment.

For starters, we want you to know that non-smokers with serious breathing disabilities or smoke allergies have legal protection under the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Fair Housing Act.

Additionally, laws currently exist that you can use to assert your rights to a smoke-free apartment.

Here's another important fact: A smoke-free policy is NOT discriminatory. As long as the policy is not used to target a protected class or minority, a building manager is legally free to restrict or prohibit smoking in their building.

Further, the right to smoke is NOT protected under law, according to the opinions of the Michigan Attorney General and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

Let us tell you more about your Tenants' Rights, Your Resources and important health facts regarding secondhand smoke.

You can also find smoke-free apartment buildings in the Smoke-Free Apartment Listing found on this section of this website.

The December, 2007 issue of UNITS magazine, published by the National Apartment Association, has a cover/feature set of articles, which you can access, titled Clearing the Air: Industry Discusses Trend Toward Smoke-Free Housing.

An AIMS Property Management Update issued jointly by the National Apartment Association and the National Multi-Housing Council on February 1, 2008 provides a 4-page analysis
that explains that no-smoking policies are both legal and good for business. The memorandum also provides "Best Practices for Implementing a Smoke-Free Policy".

The National Multi Housing Council on February 1, 2008 issued a memorandum
which stated that it was legal for apartment owners to adopt smoke-free policies and that it made business sense to do so.

Our brief Fact Sheet and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) provide concise information on why adopting a smoke-free apartment policy makes sense for landlords and tenants; they're also good as handouts at meetings.