The Landlord Lens - What If My Tenants Are Smoking Weed?

Episode Date: May 14, 2024

With marijuana more popular than ever, landlords may have found themselves in the weeds regarding their rentals.

I'm Jonathan, this is Krista, and we're here to help you be a better landlord. All right, Krista, we get this question quite a bit from landlords across the country, not just here in Colorado, and they ask what to do if their tenant is smoking weed in their rental. Reifer in the rental? Reifer in the rental. What are your first thoughts? So a very easy situation. If weed is not legal where you live or where your rental is, super simple conversation. Ban it.

Ban it. Cut it out of it. Yeah. And we should say we have another episode on the legality of marijuana. It is a constantly shifting thing, still illegal federally, as of today. And legal in roughly half the states. Is that right? Yeah, like 34 of the 50 states.

Okay. So definitely worth understanding the law, which we get into, like you said, in that other episode. Yes. Here I would say if you are concerned about your tenant smoking weed in your rental and marijuana is legal in some form in your state, there are quite a few components that you want to go through and think through before you have a conversation. And so the first thing is, is there a no smoking clause in your lease? And if so, how should they write it to also cover marijuana? Absolutely. So when we look at a typical no smoking clause, it usually outlines very specifically tobacco, cigarettes, etc. If that already exists in your lease and you don't currently have a tenant, I would simply add marijuana and marijuana products in there.

Makes it really clean. You've got it all there. It's all out. outlined. If you already have a smoking clause in your lease, but then you have a tenant who comes in and you suspect that they are smoking, you could still potentially point to that clause, even if it doesn't specify marijuana. You're just going to have a little bit of a more challenging conversation with that because it's not as specific as it could be. Yeah. And let's talk through why would somebody not want their tenant smoking marijuana in their rental? Absolutely. So when we look at marijuana smoke inside of the property, what most people think, First is, of course, the smell.

Especially if you have a multifamily property, and this is one tenant who's smoking up the whole joint, pun intended, that can really impact the other tenants who are living on that same property. When someone is smoking inside, not only is there that smell, but it can really get absorbed into the walls, it can even impact paint in some situations causing yellowing, like you might see with cigarette smoke. These are the major components. I would say also fire safety. If somebody is smoking inside, there's always a possibility they just leave their lit blunt on the table and it all goes up in flames. You do not want that. You do not want that. No. And I think it's hard to talk about recreational marijuana without making the comparison between marijuana and alcohol.

Alcohol is legal federally and legal in every state. But there are some issues. So can you break down, like if somebody is a heavy drinker, how does that affect their mood? A heavy drinker is more likely to impact your property negatively than a heavy marijuana user, right? The reason for that is just how alcohol interacts with the body. Now of course, every individual is different, but when we look at like a study, a 2017 study from the National Bureau of Economic Research found that there is a correlation between heavy

alcohol usage and increased property damage for rentals. You don't see that same correlation with marijuana usage. Why? Because oftentimes when people are using alcohol to excess, you will see increased aggression, you will see increased friction between people. All of that is really a recipe for bad news. Really, I mean, if you're a landlord, you do not want somebody who's going to be in your rental who's constantly drinking and fighting, punching holes in the wall, etc. You're more likely to get that with alcohol. Whereas with a heavy smoker, say they're smoking every day, they're smoking every day, there's smoking a lot or what you think is a lot, what would you see from that person?

It's probably going to be more contained to their unique experience insofar as they're not likely to even leave the house. They're not likely to pick a fight with somebody because they're going to be more subdued most often, right? Again, individuals react differently. But when we think of the whole broad swath of it, people who are smoking heavily are going to be calmer, they're going to be more relaxed versus alcohol, which is going to be more of an accelerant for some people. Okay, so it should also be noted there are other ways of imbibing in marijuana without smoking. Is that something that a landlord could put in their lease agreement that you can't smoke, but other forms are totally fine?

3,000%. So I would say if you are looking to make sure that no one is smoking within the rental, add that language to your no smoking clause. If it doesn't exist, add a no smoking clause. I think that's a really clean way to do that. you can specify exactly what you mean. If you're trying to ban marijuana usage in general, you would add a marijuana clause that'll go into, you know, what happens if you smoke in the rental, what happens if you are causing problems because of marijuana, you really outline where they're

allowed to smoke or not, what they're allowed to use or not. Of course, the consequences if they break that lease term, etc. But by and large, I would personally lean on the no smoking clause Because I think, as you mentioned, there are plenty of ways to imbi that really don't impact anyone other than the tenant. Okay, so let's go back to our original question. What should you do if you suspect your tenant is smoking marijuana and your rental? So first and foremost, as with anything, I would go back to the lease and see what you have in there. What have you both agreed to you?

If you don't specify that they can't smoke marijuana, talk to your lawyer, of course, but then you can have a conversation with them and let them know, hey, I've gotten this You know, maybe it was another tenant. Maybe it was you as a landlord. You noticed it. You don't have to tell them who turn them in. That creates a society of NARCs and we don't need that. But instead, you could just say, hey, this is a situation. I've noticed a smell coming out of your door. I need you to know that, like, per this smoking clause or per what you have in your lease that you can lean on, this wouldn't be acceptable. Also, there is a real risk to your security deposit at the end of your lease term. If this can continues because I'll have to pay to deodorize, to repate X, Y, Z. Putting it in that lens can

really encourage them to work with you and find a good solution because they want their money back, you know? Pretty clean and easy. Document that you had that conversation. If you can get them to sign off that you had it, even better, but at least make sure that you have a time stamped summary of what was communicated. You can let them know next steps. If I, if this happened, again, here's the consequence. Here's what you can expect. If it continues beyond that point, I would say don't renew the lease. When you have gotten them moved out, you can then go ahead and update your lease. Make sure that you have that kind of language in there. But it can get really sticky, especially if you're trying to enforce an addendum with this kind of thing, mid-lease.

Okay, so let's say recreational marijuana is fully legal in your state. You suspect your tenant is imbibing in marijuana somehow, but there's no fire hazard, there's no damage to the rental, and there are no complaints from neighbors or anyone else. Then how should you approach a tenant? Controversial take? I don't think I would. Because if there are no complaints, I'm not getting people knocking down my door being like, John is smoking in there.

If they're just living their lives and they're not bothering you, they're still paying rent, let them live. Even though you're a landlord, you don't get to. dictate how people live and operate as long as it's not negatively impacting your business. Absolutely. Well, thanks for walking us through what to do if you suspect your tenant is smoking marijuana in your rental. If you out there have any other questions, leave them in the comments below. Smoke that subscribe button. TurboTenant is the all-in-one platform for landlords to manage their rental properties.

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