Seven Steps to Implement A No-Smoking Policy

Step One: Educate your tenants: If you want to find out how your tenants feel about adopting a smoke-free policy, survey them to see their reaction and level of interest.
Step Two: Determine your Policy: Create policy language to add to your lease. Remember, there is no one-size-fits-all policy, so choose what works best for your property and residents.
Step Three: Communicate your policy: Send a letter to tenants explaining your intent to go smoke-free.
Step Four: Analyze How to Proceed: Allow tenants to respond, in person or in writing, to the announcement of policy change.
Step Five: Implement Your Policy: Add a smoke-free policy to your rules (this should occur no sooner than 20 days following the written announcement; 90 days notice is recommended).
• For private properties, add to the lease of all new and renewing tenants.
• For public housing, add the smoke-free clause to the house rules or lease
Step Six: Notify and Enforce Policy Change: Post proper signage to ensure your tenants and their guests are aware of the smoke-free policy.
Step Seven: Advertise your Policy: Have vacancies? Don’t forget to list that your units are smoke-free when you add them to newspaper classifieds, Craigslist or other apartment search engines.