Dear PoPville – More Smoking Problems

Photo by PoPville flickr user johnmcochran2012

“Dear PoPville,

I’ve been living in a small, 4-unit, apartment building in Mount Pleasant for four years. At times over the last four years, myself and two of the three other units have worked to address the smoking of the 4th resident. This individual is a bit agoraphobic, avoiding all contact with neighbors, no matter the time of day. We are an otherwise friendly and sociable community. But the “other” resident is a heavy indoor smoker, preferring to smoke with the windows closed!

In addition to the utterly foul stench that permeates the hallway, the smoke filters into the other three apartments. It’s really bad. I’m recently recovering from radiation treatment, and the smell of smoke is more than I can stand.

We have all addressed the smoke problem with our landlord, a small private company, over the course of the years to no avail. What recourse do we have, if any, to take action against this individual to get him to stop smoking indoors. It’s a very small building, so it’s very noticeable when he smokes.

Any advice from the PoPville community would be immensely helpful. Thanks!”

Ed. Note: Last week we spoke about a similar situation in a condo.