smoking in the boys room, or your house
Now, this really wouldnt have gotten me interested cause it involves smokers and I really think that the whole smoking thing has been blown out of proportion totally. I dont like smoking, never smoked in my life, though currently (according to my last chest xrays) have the lungs of a 30 year old smoker thanks to living with my smoking father for the first 16 years of my life, with my smoking brother the 2 years before university and then working at the college bar for the most of my teritary schooling career. So I gladly applauded the move to make bars and restaurants completely non-smoking as well as certain offices. But what this woman actually said got me laughing. During an interview with the reporters she actually said "it is my place, if I want to smoke in my place then you cant stop me". 'Your' place? yeah, ok...care to examine what the term 'rent' means? it does not mean you bought and paid for the place, you have borrowed it for a certain amount of cash. The place is surely not yours to do with it. Granted, you have some rights to it, but not complete like if you bought the house. You cant tear down walls, you can remodel and you surely can not pollute it with noxious substances.
One thing that came to mind is what is the difference between a hotel room and a rental house? if I am renting the hotel room from the hotel, and they say it is a no smoking room, then I can be fined for smoking in it. They rent out cars that are non-smoking, though from what I understand from the rental company, they dont push for compensation cause it is harder to fight it in a court of law then just to ask them not to do it, but it is essentially a non-smoking car. So, if you can limit the smoking in those areas, then why not make a rental apartment non-smoking, and dont give me the crap about discrimination cause I cant choose my gender, race or age but I can choose which toxic substance to introduce to my body and become addicted to.
The landlords here really did go about it the wrong way though. Ask nicely for the lady to stop smoking, and failing that, turn on her so that they make it unbearable, but still within legal rights, to live in the place for the 2 years that she is there. Little things like, perhaps, have 'trouble' with the hot water heater so that hot water is spuratic; trouble with electricity so that sometimes the power to the house goes off and on during the middle of the night causing alarm clocks to be disconnected. Tiny little things like that so that the lady will come and want out of the lease, to which the landlord will be all to happy to allow. After all, diplomacy is always key in dealing with people.
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070425/smoking_tenant_070425/20070425?hub=Canada
Mtl. landlord tells tenant to butt out or get out
Updated Wed. Apr. 25 2007 11:10 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff
A Montreal woman is fighting desperately to hold onto her home -- despite a pack-a-day smoking habit that her landlord claims is grounds for eviction. The case is currently before the Quebec Rental Board. Sandra Ann Fowler claims her landlord never told her she wouldn't be allowed to smoke in her new apartment before she signed the lease.
She told CTV Montreal she smokes about 10 cigarettes per day inside her apartment. The only condition to her tenancy, she said, was that she agree not to keep any pets in the two-unit duplex. The landlord, Olesia Koretski, lives in the downstairs unit. Koretski, who is pregnant and has asthma, claims smoke seeps into her unit, making her living situation unbearable. She has demanded that Fowler either quit smoking, or move out, reports CTV Montreal's Rob Lurie. But Fowler is demanding that the Koretski install a ventilation system, saying it's the landlord's responsibility to fix the problem.
"I'm sure if she fixes the ventilation and does stuff that will keep the smoke odours from going to her house, that will help her situation for sure," Fowler told reporters. "But it's not up to me to do that. I rented a space. I'm sure it's like, be kind to thy neighbour and all that kind of stuff, but at some point where does that stop? I'm hindering my rights right now because she wants to have clean fresh air?"
Koretski said she isn't opposed to putting in a better ventilation system, but even that won't stop all the smoke from seeping into the apartment, and the bottom line is that the smoke from Fowler's apartment is putting her health at risk.
Smokers' advocates say there's no reason why the onus should always be on the smoker to adjust their behaviour, and in this case it is the landlord's responsibility to fix the problem.
"Now it's politically correct to bash smokers and all excuses are good. In this particular case you have someone who has a pre-existing lease where there is no mention of smoking whatsoever," smokers' rights advocate Arminda Mota told CTV Montreal. "This lease was just released to June 2008, and no mention of not smoking, and this landlord brings the person to the (rental board) to tell them to stop smoking, which makes no sense."
Lurie said the Montreal case could become precedent-setting, because Toronto and Winnipeg are currently investigating the possibility of imposing smoking bans on apartment buildings. According to an Ipsos Reid survey conducted in March and November of last year, 64 per cent of respondents would choose a smoke-free building over one where smoking is permitted.
Almost half of the 1,800 people surveyed said they have had tobacco odour enter their apartment in the past year from somewhere else in the building.
One thing that came to mind is what is the difference between a hotel room and a rental house? if I am renting the hotel room from the hotel, and they say it is a no smoking room, then I can be fined for smoking in it. They rent out cars that are non-smoking, though from what I understand from the rental company, they dont push for compensation cause it is harder to fight it in a court of law then just to ask them not to do it, but it is essentially a non-smoking car. So, if you can limit the smoking in those areas, then why not make a rental apartment non-smoking, and dont give me the crap about discrimination cause I cant choose my gender, race or age but I can choose which toxic substance to introduce to my body and become addicted to.
The landlords here really did go about it the wrong way though. Ask nicely for the lady to stop smoking, and failing that, turn on her so that they make it unbearable, but still within legal rights, to live in the place for the 2 years that she is there. Little things like, perhaps, have 'trouble' with the hot water heater so that hot water is spuratic; trouble with electricity so that sometimes the power to the house goes off and on during the middle of the night causing alarm clocks to be disconnected. Tiny little things like that so that the lady will come and want out of the lease, to which the landlord will be all to happy to allow. After all, diplomacy is always key in dealing with people.
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070425/smoking_tenant_070425/20070425?hub=Canada
Mtl. landlord tells tenant to butt out or get out
Updated Wed. Apr. 25 2007 11:10 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff
A Montreal woman is fighting desperately to hold onto her home -- despite a pack-a-day smoking habit that her landlord claims is grounds for eviction. The case is currently before the Quebec Rental Board. Sandra Ann Fowler claims her landlord never told her she wouldn't be allowed to smoke in her new apartment before she signed the lease.
She told CTV Montreal she smokes about 10 cigarettes per day inside her apartment. The only condition to her tenancy, she said, was that she agree not to keep any pets in the two-unit duplex. The landlord, Olesia Koretski, lives in the downstairs unit. Koretski, who is pregnant and has asthma, claims smoke seeps into her unit, making her living situation unbearable. She has demanded that Fowler either quit smoking, or move out, reports CTV Montreal's Rob Lurie. But Fowler is demanding that the Koretski install a ventilation system, saying it's the landlord's responsibility to fix the problem.
"I'm sure if she fixes the ventilation and does stuff that will keep the smoke odours from going to her house, that will help her situation for sure," Fowler told reporters. "But it's not up to me to do that. I rented a space. I'm sure it's like, be kind to thy neighbour and all that kind of stuff, but at some point where does that stop? I'm hindering my rights right now because she wants to have clean fresh air?"
Koretski said she isn't opposed to putting in a better ventilation system, but even that won't stop all the smoke from seeping into the apartment, and the bottom line is that the smoke from Fowler's apartment is putting her health at risk.
Smokers' advocates say there's no reason why the onus should always be on the smoker to adjust their behaviour, and in this case it is the landlord's responsibility to fix the problem.
"Now it's politically correct to bash smokers and all excuses are good. In this particular case you have someone who has a pre-existing lease where there is no mention of smoking whatsoever," smokers' rights advocate Arminda Mota told CTV Montreal. "This lease was just released to June 2008, and no mention of not smoking, and this landlord brings the person to the (rental board) to tell them to stop smoking, which makes no sense."
Lurie said the Montreal case could become precedent-setting, because Toronto and Winnipeg are currently investigating the possibility of imposing smoking bans on apartment buildings. According to an Ipsos Reid survey conducted in March and November of last year, 64 per cent of respondents would choose a smoke-free building over one where smoking is permitted.
Almost half of the 1,800 people surveyed said they have had tobacco odour enter their apartment in the past year from somewhere else in the building.
posted by Capt_Canuck at 5:16 PM
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