Need to know what should be the grilling and smoking policy in a brownstone with 4 units. I am working on drafting additional riders to specify pet policy, smoking and grill uses.
Can I demand no smoking policy in the whole building or at least in common areas? Can I also forbid grills in less than 10 feet from the building in the two units that share the building?


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  1. oops … misread this and thought it was coops.

    probably because coops have to think about these rules as they apply to the tenant/shareholders.

    landlords can pretty much do what they want, so that it was a landlord asking didn’t occur to me.

  2. It’s your property so I would be surprised if you can’t define terms on those issues other than service animals, which can’t be banned.

    As a person who used to work with dogs, I think a weight limit is silly. It’s either dogs or no dogs, possibly with a number limit. People with small dogs often neglect excising them (they think a small dog need less exercise for some reason, which is false) and the lack of exercise leads to more destructive and noisy behaviors. Dogs of any size can bark excessively or tear up things and I personally think cat urine is far more offensive than anything I dog can do to a property.

    We currently have a dog and when renting never felt that a pet deposit on top of security was a problem, so add that if you’re uncertain. Our last LL actually preferred the dog over children b/c they said children of previous tenants had caused more damage than any dogs ever had (and it was so apparent in our apartment), but you can’t ban children 🙂

  3. If this is a multifamily with unregulated rentals, and you are the owner, you have a lot of leeway and control on riders. You can bar both smoking and grilling entirely, as neither are protected classes. Tenants with service animals are protected, but pet-owning in general is not. You can find pet riders on the web. Here’s an old thread with some rider suggestions (probably more old threads, and more sample riders can be found on the web, too): http://bit.ly/dGn3uY

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