On the agenda for San Francisco’s Land Use and Economic Development Commission, a proposed amendment to San Francisco’s Health Code which would require owners of multi-unit residential rental properties to designate every unit in a building as either “smoke free” or “smoking optional,” the master list of which, including the location of each unit, would need to be disclosed to all rental applicants and existing tenants upon request.
That being said, according to the amendment, a property owner’s designation “is not a guarantee that units designated as smoke free will be smoke free, or that the property will be free from second hand smoke” and the proposed amendment “does not create any right of action, or create any remedies or defenses or other means of legal redress” in the case a unit is not.
Designating Of Rental Units As Either Smoke Free or Smoking Optional [sfbos.org]

6 thoughts on “A Master List Of Smoke Free Rentals, But Accuracy Not Guaranteed”
  1. Wow, that sounds like some incredibly stupid and meaningless bureaucracy.
    Laws that are not enforceable are worse than no laws at all.

  2. Well, it is a good step to raise awareness of the harmful effects of second hand smoke in residential units. Sorry, but there are too many smokers stinking up the place.

  3. All this is well and good, but God forbid that a landlord request that a tenant not smoke in their unit. Earlier this year the Rent Board went out of its way to assure that tenants could not be evicted based upon CA’s new smoking provisions. I guess in SF, tenant’s rights supercede the potential negative aspects of second hand smoke.

  4. wow, another senseless law that cannot be enforced and places a burden on landlords to be cognisant of their tenant’s personal habits and then disclose said habits to potential renters. so stupid.

  5. If it were a working functioning rental market (tenants and landlords on equal footing), I would really applaud this disclosure. But SF rental market is everything BUT functioning.
    I can already picture the average desperate prospective tenants not giving a rat’s behind about this. In the order of priority: First a roof. Then walls. Then indoor plumbing. Then power. Then a kitchen. Then privacy. If you’ve got all this and do not need to open 6 credit cards just to afford the first 2 months you’ll be one of the lucky few.

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