Common Walls, Common air?
Here in St. Paul Minnesota, we have a lot of rules about where people can and can not smoke. I can’t think of any public place where smoking is allowed indoors, certainly not in bars or restaurants. Next door in Dakota county bars and restaurants do allow indoor smoking, but those public places are an exception and many restaurants are smoke free anyway.
When it comes to apartment buildings, condos, lofts and townhouses, smoking is prohibited in common areas, but smoking is allowed in individual units.
Recently I have been told about two situations involving townhouses where the occupants of one unit are nonsmokers and the people on the other side of the wall smoke. In both cases the non-smoker got there first, both of the buildings are older, and the non-smoking owners are having a fit about the smell of cigarette smoke coming through the common wall. The non-smokers are also concerned about air quality in their homes.
Something to take into consideration before buying a home with a common wall. Even if you find out that your neighbors don’t smoke you never know when a smoker will move in. If you are a smoker you may find that laws will be enacted which may prevent you from smoking in your own home if second hand smoke travels inside your neighbors homes.
My suggestion is to have a buyers home inspection and to get help from the inspector to determine if second hand smoke can leak through the common wall. The way some units are built it is not an issue. http://www.smokefreecoalition.org/
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This Minnesota site focuses mostly on smokefree rentals and tentant rights, but it has some useful information:
http://www.ansrmn.org/ISFA.htm
Bob Moffitt
Communications Director
American Lung Association of Minnesota
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Thanks Bob! I will add a link!
As a REALTOR I can tell you it’s a lot easier to smell a non-smokers house than one that’s been smoked in!
Very true, I make them smoke in the garage until it is sold!
T
We sent out a news release a few years ago on that very subject, Lisa. It got a lot a play in the media and real estate trades:
http://www.kiiss.org/home/articles/article_nosale.html
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Thanks, I think I may have to do a follow up on this because of the responses and links I am getting.
Teresa
Congratulations on winning the Carnival of Real Estate!
I thought I had read this b4 but had not.
I never thought of smoke coming through a common wall.
Nothing can be more miserable than to have to put up with smoke in your own home. I am not aware of any laws prohibiting smoking in one’s own home in Colorado. But I can understand if the home were a condo, why laws for smoking would be necessary.
I’ve been in hotel rooms that were designated “no smoking” but I could smell smoke. It must come through the HVAC system. To come through the walls would be pretty amazing.
kk