Recently, the City of Buffalo passed a law requiring all landlords to disclose their policy on smoking to tenants living in their apartments. The law states that landlords must inform tenants if they can or can not smoke on the property, and if so, where they may do so. More information on this law can be found on The Buffalo News website.
The law does not require this to be a written disclosure. However, by having a written disclosure in place, landlords can save a lot of the “he said/she said” type arguments that would pop up from not having the policy clearly outlined.
How do you ensure written compliance? I’ve designed a simple and straight forward lease addendum that can be added to any residential lease. This addendum outlines the smoking policy for a building, and informs the tenant as to the penalties for breaking the policy.
A copy of the lease addendum in DOC format can be downloaded here: Smoking Policy Addendum.
(This post is part of our “Landlord Basics” series, which seeks to help the new landlord / investor understand some of the basics of tenant relations and property management. Click 
