Cigerette / Pot smoking in Apartment Complex Nevada Help! (lease, tenant, eviction)
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My wife and I just moved to Mesquite and got a 2 bedroom upstairs apartment. Our lease, and everyone else's lease bans smoking from inside their apartments. The lease also has a "drug" free policy in which no drugs of any type can be used/sold/or kept in any of the apartments.
The problem is my wife and I are non-smokers. A gentleman next to us is smoking cigerettes in his apartment, as well as marijuana. In Nevada, it is legal to smoke pot in our own residence, however it is against his lease. When we turn the a/c on, it comes into our apartment. Anytime we turn on our bathroom exhaust fans, it literally becomes smelling like an old bar from the 70s with how much cigerette smoke smell comes out. It's almost 100 degrees outside, so we need to have the windows closed up and a/c on to even survive in the apartment.
When complaining to the manager, she states she has looked high and low, went into everyone's apartment around us, and no one is smoking inside. That's impossible because how would it come into a bathroom exhaust fan, or through the air conditioning otherwise. It's very windy outside, and there aren't enough people smoking outside, if any at all, when the smell comes through. I just don't see how someone outside 50-100 feet away, in a windstorm, would cause so much cigerette and pot smoke to come into our apartment through the a/c vents or bathroom exhaust fans.
Anyone have any recommendations on how to handle this? I have tried to be as civil as possible, but if there are any small legal issues with this situation, I'm not above being very ticky-tack and playing hardball, as we are pretty much stuck living here.
Our lease, and everyone else's lease bans smoking from inside their apartments.
The lease also has a "drug" free policy
When complaining to the manager, she states she has looked high and low,
went into everyone's apartment around us, and no one is smoking inside.
Anyone have any recommendations on how to handle this?
1) set up surveillance and prove it to the manager ...
then wait for the eviction process to wend it's way through.
If/when... maybe a year or so from now... you get a new smoker to move in.
2) Pack up and move.
You should be able to break the lease without penalty
but you WILL have to jump a few hoops and dot all the i's
That may very well be telling the truth. In many apartment complexes, the vents do NOT vent out of the building but instead vent into the attic. I know in my old apartment, I’d get a variety of smells into my apartment, including smoke, even though no one on my floor smoked. It was because the smoke was going up to the top and then come through the vent back into my apartment.
What I would suggest is to ask them to check in the attic and see if they can at least see if they can smell the smoke up there and find out where it is coming from.
Maybe it is hard to pinpoint which neighbour is smoking drugs, but a former tenant we knew would pull the fire alarm every time smoke went inside their unit. They didn't step up to admit it was them for pulling the fire alarm, but it was enough for the LL to do something with the person who was smoking drugs.
Where I used to live, the air circulation may have been different from yours but in our bathroom, it got really smokey that it filled up our unit. So I used old towels to block the smoke from coming out of the bathroom, light up some scented candles that I got as gifts and didn't like the scent, and burned the candle inside the bathroom that the smoke went up to all the floors above us that everyone got the message not to smoke indoors and they had to open their hallway door and balcony door to air out their unit.
LL owner was horrible but the lady who screened new applications loved it when I told her and we didn't have an issue any more for the rest of the winter season.
Yeah, maybe get some strong incense? I do like the idea of pulling the smoke alarm lol.
I used to be a property manager, and it's really hard to bust people for smoking. You have to give notice to enter, so you can't just break down the door to catch them in the act. You can knock on their door and see if they open it and the smell is obvious, and then write them up for smoking. But, really the best you can usually do, is just not renew their lease.
I can't think of how to play hardball in a way that would work for you. But, what might at least get them to not renew the lease again, is to just constantly complain. I would do it in a way that doesn't make the manager hate you, though. Maybe say every time that you know their job is hard, and you're so sorry to be a pain, but the smell is constant and driving you crazy, and then suggest things she can maybe do to catch them - check the attic or whatever.
The trick is to not let it be easy for her to ignore the problem, but also to not make her hate you. The goal is to get her to not renew their lease. So, shmooze her as best you can, while also complaining often enough that she will want the problem to go away - incentive to start giving notices, etc., and then terminating their lease when it's up.
Because what can happen is, she may end up just wanting you gone. If you're planning on leaving anyway, though, you might as well not make it easy for her to just keep moving in smokers. Honestly, you can pretty much always tell who is a smoker, and you don't have to rent to smokers. So, renting to someone you know smokes, is just a lazy way to get an apartment filled. It's possible she didn't see it coming, but not likely, is my point. Smokers smell like smoke. I could always smell it. And I never believed they wouldn't smoke in their apartment. As a former smoker, I knew better. You may not intend to, but then it rains...
I smoke, although I have cut down considerably, & I do not smoke in my apartment. Nor did I smoke in my apartment in Minnesota. Nor did I smoke in my house when I owned one.
There are a lot of people that follow the rules & are considerate of their neighbors. BUT, I will be one of the first that say, if you don't want to follow the rules, find somewhere else to live.
Yeah, maybe get some strong incense? I do like the idea of pulling the smoke alarm lol.
I used to be a property manager, and it's really hard to bust people for smoking. You have to give notice to enter, so you can't just break down the door to catch them in the act. You can knock on their door and see if they open it and the smell is obvious, and then write them up for smoking. But, really the best you can usually do, is just not renew their lease.
I can't think of how to play hardball in a way that would work for you. But, what might at least get them to not renew the lease again, is to just constantly complain. I would do it in a way that doesn't make the manager hate you, though. Maybe say every time that you know their job is hard, and you're so sorry to be a pain, but the smell is constant and driving you crazy, and then suggest things she can maybe do to catch them - check the attic or whatever.
The trick is to not let it be easy for her to ignore the problem, but also to not make her hate you. The goal is to get her to not renew their lease. So, shmooze her as best you can, while also complaining often enough that she will want the problem to go away - incentive to start giving notices, etc., and then terminating their lease when it's up.
Because what can happen is, she may end up just wanting you gone. If you're planning on leaving anyway, though, you might as well not make it easy for her to just keep moving in smokers. Honestly, you can pretty much always tell who is a smoker, and you don't have to rent to smokers. So, renting to someone you know smokes, is just a lazy way to get an apartment filled. It's possible she didn't see it coming, but not likely, is my point. Smokers smell like smoke. I could always smell it. And I never believed they wouldn't smoke in their apartment. As a former smoker, I knew better. You may not intend to, but then it rains...
Apparently pulling the fire alarm and it is deemed to be false, the LL get fined for it, so pulling the fire alarm is the only way to get the LL to do something with the smokers.
Apparently pulling the fire alarm and it is deemed to be false, the LL get fined for it, so pulling the fire alarm is the only way to get the LL to do something with the smokers.
I would bet pulling a fire alarm when there’s no fire is some sort of crime, although I suppose one could say, “But I smelled smoke....”
I smoke, although I have cut down considerably, & I do not smoke in my apartment. Nor did I smoke in my apartment in Minnesota. Nor did I smoke in my house when I owned one.
There are a lot of people that follow the rules & are considerate of their neighbors. BUT, I will be one of the first that say, if you don't want to follow the rules, find somewhere else to live.
The problem with even this, is that you walk that smoke smell into the apartment on your clothes and hair. Then that smell ends up in your closet and wherever your hamper is. That smell stays in an apartment and gets into the vents. And if by smoking outside, you mean on the patio, where it can blow back in through the doors or windows, it's still going to smell like smoke inside.
Where I live now, there is a community patio below my apartment, kind of kitty corner downstairs. I can always smell it when smokers go out on the patio to smoke. It comes up and into my open balcony.
Smokers usually are really thoughtless about where their cigarette butts end up, too. They don't magically biodegrade overnight. I was always sweeping up cigarette butts when I was a property manager.
But, even for smokers who are thoughtful, the odds are that renting to a smoker will be a problem. And since it's legal to discriminate against them, landlords are better off just not renting to them.
I would bet pulling a fire alarm when there’s no fire is some sort of crime, although I suppose one could say, “But I smelled smoke....”
Oh yes, you would think that is what they can say, which is not a lie.
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