Pubdate: Mon, 22 Jan 2018
Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC)
Copyright: 2018 Times Colonist
Contact:  http://www.timescolonist.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481
Author: Peter Goffin
Page: B5

ONTARIO LANDLORDS CALL FOR RIGHT TO BAN MARIJUANA IN RENTAL SUITES

TORONTO - Ontario landlords want the right to immediately ban the use
of pot in rental properties when recreational weed is legalized this
summer, arguing they should be allowed to change tenants' existing
leases to stop the drug from being consumed in their units.

Some marijuana users say, however, that the situation would leave
renters with few places to legally use weed, given the province's
already restrictive rules around the drug.

Under rules announced in the fall, the province plans a ban on
recreational pot consumption in public spaces and workplaces, allowing
it only in private residences. Medical marijuana use will be permitted
anywhere that cigarette smoking is allowed, the legislation says.

Landlords will be able to spell out a ban on smoking marijuana in
rental units for new leases post-legalization - the same as they do
for tobacco use - but the province's tenancy laws make it illegal to
change a lease before it ends. That means in some cases, until an
existing lease runs out, landlords would be unable to regulate
marijuana use in their properties, said John Dickie, president of the
Canadian Federation of Apartment Associations, adding that landlords
are concerned about the impact a spike in pot smoking will have on
other tenants in rental properties.

"[The province is] not going to allow marijuana to be smoked in public
areas, so where the heck are people going to smoke marijuana? Well,
they're going to do it in their apartments," he said.

"The problem is, just like when they smoke tobacco, the smell goes to
neighbouring apartments. Buildings are not hermetically sealed."

It can cost $5,000-6,000 to get the smell of marijuana smoke out of
apartment walls and floors, said Dan Henderson, president of the
DelSuites property management firm in Toronto.

"It's not the stigma [of marijuana use], it's just the number of
expenses to maintain the unit and the complaints landlords receive
from the neighbours," said Henderson, whose company manages rental
units for approximately 2,000 landlords in the Greater Toronto Area.

Dickie and Henderson both argue Ontario landlords should be allowed to
immediately prohibit tenants from smoking marijuana in their units,
even if the tenants are mid-lease.

"As it stands [before] legalization, tenants are banned from smoking
marijuana in a building and you don't have to write it in the lease
because it's the law," Dickie said."It would be ideal if the province
automatically [made it part] of leases, unless the landlord and tenant
agree to take it out of the lease, because that would continue the
status quo."

The Ontario government said its Residential Tenancy Act does not
include explicit rules about smoking substances of any kind in a
rental property, and the new pot laws do not contain any rules for
renters engaging in recreational use.

Landlords have the right to include stipulations banning tobacco smoke
when drafting a lease but if they do not, a tenant can smoke in their
own unit. Those rules will likely apply to marijuana when it is
legalized, the government said.

The province is also currently seeking public feedback on a proposal
to allow designated outdoor smoking or vaping areas in multi-unit
residences, an idea welcomed by some marijuana users who argue some
tenants might otherwise have few places they can consume pot.

"It [would be] really leaving people with nowhere to go," Natasha
Grimshaw, a manager at a Toronto marijuana dispensary, said of
landlords banning pot in units. "You have more freedom [to smoke] now
when it's illegal than you will when you're supposed to be free to
smoke it."

Having a dedicated marijuana space for a rental property could provide
a suitable compromise, Grimshaw said.

"Condos have theatre rooms, party rooms, so why not have marijuana
rooms?" she said. "They could even make restrictions that you need to
use vaporizers [instead] of smoking a joint so it's not a smoke and
you're not going to necessarily be upsetting too many people in the
building."

Designated marijuana lounges would be "a great idea" if landlords
could then also ban smoking in rental units, Dickie added.

"People haven't rushed to do that with tobacco in part because it's
not inexpensive to set up a separate ventilation system, but in a
bigger building it would make sense," he added.

"We'll just all have to weigh out the demand for it with the cost of
doing it."
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MAP posted-by: Matt