Smoking Guests

Status
Not open for further replies.

hotsmak

New Member
My room mate and I have been living together for well over a year. Everything has been fine up till he started dating this new girl who smokes. The understand has always been that there will not be any smoking with in the apartment. Both of our names are on the lease, and if either of us cancel with in the next 6 months it would be very pricy. The problem is that although she doesn't live there is a heavy smoker and it has caused many arguments. He has been absolutly rude about the situations, and now her friends are over very often as well and they all smoke. Am I trapped to deal with this? I hate to be a jerk but I'm tired of this situation. We both split the rent and util. He refuses to leave becasue of the cost, and so do I. However we can not agree on this. I would see it as there should be a law or something protecting my rights here. Is there anything I can do?
 
That's a great question. For this reason I was actually solicited to create a "roomate agreement" for a friend of mine many years ago when I was in law school. As it turns out, it has been used several hundred times since (!) and I suggest something of that nature for anyone considering a roomate situation, especially as a co-signor on a lease.

From the way I see it, she is not a tenant on the lease. You had an agreement with your roomate that there will be no smoking in the apartment. That cannot change now. I'm not sure how you can use the law here without things becoming tense between you and your roomate.

It is possible that you can sue him for his causing the landlord to breach his covenant of "quiet enjoyment" that he has granted to both you and your roomate as implied in your lease.

A suggestion might be to send him a certified return receipt letter stating that you both agreed there would be no smoking in the apartment and that the situation was as such for # years. However, your roomate has breached that agreement and add in the details. You demand that he cease and desist from the events from continuing or you will be forced to take other action. Perhaps then he'll take you seriously. At that point you may want to discuss options for eviction or going to the landlord to evict him. Neither is particularly a good situation and perhaps the letter will get you where you need to be and you can cross the second bridge if you ever get there and need to. I can't tell you that this is what you should do but without the written roomate agreement it's a messy situation. Good luck and let us know how it turns out.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top