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Smoking tenants in a non smoking building

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  • 28-08-2014 5:09pm
    #1
    _oveless_
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 135 ✭✭


    I recently moved into a house separated into several flats, I am in one of 3 flats on the top floor of the house. The house was advertised as a non smoking and it says so in the lease I signed also. However a few days after I moved in I came home to find the smell of cigarette smoke as I came upstairs, it seems one of the two (or maybe both) tenants in the other two flats are smokers. At first I put it down to maybe they having guest over who smoke, but it has been every day now so I dont think it's a possibility. I asked on of the tenants if they smoke and he said no, and I havent seen the other tenant yet to ask.
    To add to this the smoke alarm above my door doesnt work and neither does the other on in the hallway. I brought both issues up with the landlady and she said she will look into it, but I'm wondering now what else I can do, besides buy a smoke alarm for my own flat (I know it may seem an irrational fear, but I am awake at night worrying that someone might fall asleep with a lit cigarette and burn the building down). At the moment I have the windows open to try and get the smell of smoke out of my living room but thats not going to be an option once the weather gets colder.


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    #2
    srsly78
    Registered Users Posts: 7,157 ✭✭✭srsly78


    Your flat may be a non-smoking one but this has no bearing on the other flats.

    Most smoke alarms do not detect cigarette smoke btw (basically because they are not sensitive enough), only specialised ones do. Lying awake at night worrying about it is silly, you will always very likely have smokers as neighbours/nearby.


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    #3
    _oveless_
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 135 ✭✭_oveless_


    srsly78 wrote: »
    Your flat may be a non-smoking one but this has no bearing on the other flats.

    Most smoke alarms do not detect cigarette smoke btw (basically because they are not sensitive enough), only specialised ones do. Lying awake at night worrying about it is silly, you will always very likely have smokers as neighbours/nearby.

    Sorry I meant to say the building is non smoking, as in "this is a non smoking building" as stated in the lease.


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    #4
    srsly78
    Registered Users Posts: 7,157 ✭✭✭srsly78


    Why do you need to buy a smoke alarm for your own flat? There should be one there already, they are required by law.


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    #5
    L1011
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 67,676 Mod ✭✭✭✭L1011


    Should be a mains-wired, backup battery smoke alarm as its a multi-unit building. Remind her again, a bit more forcefully this time. Suspect you'll get a poundshop battery one dropped off but that doesn't meet the rules.


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    #6
    irlirishkev
    Registered Users Posts: 2,502 ✭✭✭irlirishkev


    Smoke alarm in rental accommodation is required by law. It's part of the minimum standards.
    I'd buy one anyway just to have it, but keep on at your landlord to supply one.

    Re the smoking in the building, there's no law against smoking in your home. Landlords can put 'no smoking' in a lease if they like, but it'd be tough to enforce, and if it ever went to court, I doubt anything would come of it. A lease doesn't surpass the laws that are in place. Not 100% about this though, just what I've heard over the years.

    A lease is also bollox if minimum standards aren't in place, which it sounds like they aren't.


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