Explain to the landlord or estate agent that your soft furniture and stored clothes in cupboards are starting to smell of second hand smoke and it's not what you signed up for (lease) - Not to mention the possibility that the walls and ceiling would stain which you will not be accountable for. Place a little pressure with the landlord or estate agent to act on your behalf and ask if they would be prepared to pay for steam cleaning or drycleaning in your apartment?

Here's the link to the existing thread on this topic:

http://jclist.com/modules/newbb/viewt ... id=278944#forumpost278944

Basically, it's legal for your landlord to prohibit the tenant from smoking but not in the middle of a lease (unless the lease already bans smoking) - if you're lucky, the smoker is month-to-month or near coming up for lease renewal soon.

You can also tell the landlord that the smoke makes your apartment uninhabitable. Which doesn't necessarily mean that the landlord will be able to force the smoker to immediately stop. It might just mean that the landlord will allow you to break your lease with no penalty.

I think a lot of landlords are starting to realize that this is a deal-breaker for many good tenants and it's worth talking to yours about options. But it may be that moving is your best/fastest solution.

I doubt it unless it is written into the by-laws or instructed to the tenants. We can't even get problem bars shut down so I doubt you will win your cause. This happens when you rent in urban apartment buildings. That is why mortgages are granted to buildings that are 75% resident owned. I would say move to a non-smoking building, and check before hand.

Is this a poem?

But seriously, yes, there are options for you. Someone else on this board had the same problem with a smoker with. Maybe they can chime in or you could try doing a search for the thread.

My Wife and I rent a condo downtown.
It is a three unit building.
The fellow on the second floor is a chain
smoker who is unemployed and smokes
inside his apt. day and night.
The smell is coming into our unit.
Does anyone know if we have any recourse
other then to ask him to smoke outside,
which he won't?
Any state or local laws etc?

Thanks!