HOAleader.com - Tip of the Week - January 17, 2014
Published: Fri, 01/17/14
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Clearing the Smoke on HOA Tobacco and e-Cigarette Bans
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In this week's tip, we discuss recent trends in HOAs regarding
smoking-even with the newfangled e-cigarettes.
One of our experts recently drafted the first smoking ban at one
of his associations, including in owners' units. In addition, an
HOA in Virginia has banned e-cigarettes. Can and should you ban
smoking and e-cigarettes?
Let's start with smoking bans. It's rare for an association to
ban smoking in its entire facility, including owners' units. "We
don't have any clients that I'm aware of that ban smoking in
their association," says Steven Parker, president of FirstService
Residential Nevada in Las Vegas, which manages hundreds of
community associations. "Most of the control of tobacco use
happens as it relates to being in a public place. In Nevada, you
can't smoke in public places. But I've had no boards bringing up
the question of whether to ban smoking altogether."
That's also the case in the San Francisco Bay Area. "There have
been some laws passed in the bay area, but I don't know any
associations that have passed rules banning smoking," says
Debra A. Warren, CMCA, CCAM, PCAM, senior vice president at
Dallas-based Associa(R), a community association management
company with offices throughout the United States, Canada, and
Mexico. "Most aren't passing a ban on smoking inside their units,
and they're not doing anything to regulate smoking, unless
there's a complaint. In those cases, they're just trying to
mediate those disputes one-off to see if there's anything
that can be done." Sunny Florida, on the other hand, seems to be
on the cutting edge of the association smoking ban scene.
"I have a client who was interested in amending his association's
documents to prohibit smoking, even in owners' units," explains
Jed L. Frankel, a partner at Eisinger, Brown, Lewis, Frankel &
Chaiet PA in Hollywood, Fla., who advises community associations.
"That's something that's in flux right now. They've been going
through a couple of different stages. Already people can't smoke
inside gyms because Florida law talks about that. So the easy
thing for that board to do was to pass a rule that they wouldn't
allow smoking in common areas, like the garage or swimming pool
area. I think that's very defensible. The association can
regulate the areas it covers."
Frankel's not the only HOA professional who's seen that type of
ban. Get the details on that and what to do about e-cigarettes in
our new article:
http://www.hoaleader.com/members/940.cfm
Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President
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Tobacco and e-Cigarettes: What HOAs Should Know
One of our experts recently drafted the first smoking ban at one of his
associations--including in owners' units. Here we get the details. In
addition, an HOA in Virginia has banned e-cigarettes. Read on to learn what
e-cigarettes are and get our experts' opinions on whether boards can and
should ban them as they might ban regular tobacco smoking.
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Click here to read full article:
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