A non smoking clause in the lease ?

On the 4th of July 2007, the Régie du logement pronounced itself in part on the issue of smoking in apartments. The Director of the Régie, Me Claudine Novello, had determined that a clause in a proposition to rent does not implicate a tenant if this same clause has not been discussed at the time of the signing of the lease and if this same clause has not been amended to the lease. A contrario, one can read the decision¹ of the Régie as a victory for owners of dwellings stipulating in a clause in their lease that it is forbidden to smoke because such a clause attached to the lease is part and parcel of the contract.

  Nevertheless, one does not yet know the chances of success for the landlord who would like to modify the lease in order to make it non smoker while doing so. The Régie du logement would find it awkward if a landlord would ask to terminate one of his tenants’ right to smoke while the lease is running, but who knows…? We would suggest, then, that if you do not like cigarettes or yellowing walls [in your dwelling], you’d better insert a non smoking clause in the lease of your new tenant.