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Tenants

Write a letter to your building manager or landlord.

  • Explain your problem and offer solutions.
  • Keep copies of any correspondence.

Follow up by approaching your landlord to discuss the situation.

  • Be positive, polite, and stick to the issue.
  • Ask to work together to solve the problem instead of getting angry or yelling.

Offer solutions.

  • Work with your landlord and offer to help think of or implement some solutions.
  • Solutions could include conducting a tenant survey, holding a tenants' meeting, relocating to a different part of the building, or ending your lease early to find a smoke-free building.

Provide information.

  • Give your landlord information on the dangers of being exposed to secondhand smoke.
  • Explain the benefits of having a smoke-free building.

Emphasize that building owners can legally make their buildings smoke free.

  • For HUD (Housing and Urban Development) units, point out that changing “House Rules” may be easier to accomplish than making a formal lease change.

Suggest that smoke-free units can be established.

  • For current tenants, a smoke-free policy can be signed during each tenant's lease renewal.
  • New tenants can start off smoke free.