Thank You For Not Smoking

From the January ECHO Journal - Many community associations now face an increased number of complaints from nonsmokers about their smoking neighbors and are being asked to take action. The issue of secondhand smoke typically arises in condominium and townhome developments, where smoke can penetrate an adjacent home through walls via air ducts or heating vents, beneath door frames and through windows. The smoker may be in any number of locations: outside in the common area; in a restricted common area location like a balcony or patio, in a common area hallway; or even in the smoker's own unit.

While the non-smoking neighbor's complaint may run from general annoyance to worry about health risks to actual physical reactions to the smoke, the smoker generally retorts that, like the nonsmoker, the smoker, too, is an owner and a member of the association and, as such, is entitled to access and enjoy the development, including the smoker's unit. Thus, the association is often placed in the middle of a pitched battle between non-smokers and smokers, where the association is called upon to resolve the dispute.

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