While many of us don’t like the smell of tobacco and/or marijuana, some of us also have asthma that flares up in reaction to smoke. It’s not fun to begin to wheeze and fight for air in one’s own home or while sunning on the balcony when someone else lights up a cigarette or a joint.
I raised this with Westsea Construction during 2017, and to management’s credit their legal people were in touch with two suite leaseholders and/or their tenants, which improved my situation, but did not resolve it. I was told that enforcement was under Rules and Regs. # 2, “No Lessee shall make or permit any disturbing noises in the building or do or permit anything to be done therein which will interfere with the rights, comfort and convenience of other occupants of the building.” Also, Rules and Regs. #29, which says, “No lessee shall permit cooking or other odours to escape from suites into the building.”
But if specific instances of smoking are deemed to be a nuisance under these clauses, why aren’t ALL such instances a nuisance? So that’s what I told Westsea; that my comfort and convenience certainly IS being affected, and that under these clauses the building should simply be declared smoke-free. ‘No such luck. “At this time Orchard House will not be declared a smoke-free building,” was the reply.
Since then I’ve been distracted, as this web site shows, but will bring the issue forward in future. Perhaps a few other leaseholders will help me sponsor a legal action (“tort of nuisance”) to have a judge declare that smoking is, in fact, a comfort and health-compromising nuisance that cannot be allowed under our in-house Rules. Now excuse me, as I have to go use my asthma-treatment inhaler.
OrchardHouseLeaseholder.ca 