State Smoking Restrictions for Renters Tighten in the New Year

Tenants who smoke in Santa Monica and Los Angeles will not have the same protection against eviction as smokers in West Hollywood when a state Senate-approved bill takes effect Jan. 1, 2012. 

Senate Bill 332, introduced earlier this year by state Sen. Alex Padilla (D-San Fernando Valley), would allow landlords to declare a rental unit or an entire apartment complex as "nonsmoking." While many apartment complexes already have smoke-free policies, until now there was nothing in state law that explicitly permitted a landlord to restrict smoking.

The bill, signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in September, contains a grandfather clause that allows any local ordinance regarding apartment smoking in effect prior to that date to stand. As a result, the West Hollywood City Council finalized an  earlier this month protecting its smokers from eviction.

According to the latest census figures, 78 percent of West Hollywood residents live in rental units. According to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, 20 percent of West Hollywood residents smoke, compared to 15 percent in Los Angeles County.

West Hollywood lawmakers feared that landlords might use the law to get rid of long-term tenants in rent-controlled apartments and then raise the rents to market rate. The Weho ordinance protecting tenants who smoke passed unanimously on the consent calendar without discussion.

The Santa Monica City Council at a meeting earlier this month to move in the opposite direction, further restricting smoking in apartment buildings. The council decided to postpone a vote for 90 days on a measure to prohibit smoking in newly constructed and newly vacated residential units. It would have also required that all existing residential units in multi-unit properties be designated as either smoking or nonsmoking and that landlords and homeowners associations maintain rosters of all units’ smoking status. The rosters would then be distributed to current and prospective occupants.

Landlords and some tenants object to the proposal saying it would violate privacy rights and discriminate against smokers. Coucil members had concerns too, with how the law would impact medical marajuana users and how it would work with the the state law.

It is too late, however, for Los Angeles to pass a local ordiannce before the new year. The L.A. City Council is in recess until Jan. 3.

If an apartment smoking ordinance had been introduced in Los Angeles, it would have first gone through the Housing, Community and Economic Development Committee chaired by Councilman Tony Cardenas of the 6th District, which covers much of the San Fernando Valley.

A spokesman for Cardenas said that L.A.’s rent stabilization laws have a list of specific things that could lead to a tenant's eviction. “Smoking is not on that list,” he said. “We think as far as rent-control apartments go, smokers would be protected.”

In Los Angeles, units built prior to 1978 fall under rent stabilization laws. Units built since then do not. “Anyone in a unit built after that time would not be protected,” said Cardenas' spokesman.

Councilman Paul Koretz, who served on the West Hollywood City Council from 1988 to 2000 and in the state Assembly during 2000-06, and now serves L.A.'s 5th district, which bumps into Weho’s southern borders, was unfamiliar with the particulars of SB 332 when Patch interviewed him, but said he would not have supported such an ordinance had it been introduced.

“The idea that [the Los Angeles City Council] would pass something like that is hard to imagine,” Koretz said. “We’ve been tightening our smoking ordinances, so I can’t see us doing something like that.”

According to the bill, an apartment’s smoking policies must be written into any new leases before a tenant signs. As for existing leases, landlords must notify a resident in writing about changes regarding smoking and give adequate time for them to comply, generally 30 days.  

Koretz indicated he's not worried. “I don’t think it would be a problem except when someone’s being uncooperative,” he said. He also commended Sacramento lawmakers for passing SB 332 and urged the West Hollywood City Council to reconsider its vote.

Some tenants’ rights advocates fear that a landlord might include several items when notifying tenants about lease changes. They worry that some tenants might not notice the nonsmoking clause among the list and therefore be at risk for eviction. They also say seniors who have been in a unit for decades and pay low rents, thanks to rent stabilization laws, would be especially vulnerable.

Koretz said he does not want to see people evicted from apartments, but hoped the laws would encourage more people to quit smoking.