HB 4120 – This Act lets landlords restrict smoking in apartments. Allows residential landlords of multifamily housing to convert premises to nonsmoking for existing tenants upon 90 days’ written notice. Applies to new and existing rental agreements.

Smoking is harmful to everyone’s health, as well as secondhand smoke. Smoke seeps into a room’s walls, carpeting, ceiling, flooring and other surfaces making it impossible to remove the odor once a tenant moves out, reducing the attraction to rent the unit to future tenants. With housing already being in short supply, we don’t need to add to the problem for tenants to find a suitable place to call home.

Because smoke smelling dwellings are harder to rent, it reduces market value decreasing the amount of rent landlords can charge.

WHAT THE MEASURE DOES:
The measure creates a new exception allowing a landlord to amend an existing smoking policy without tenant consent if specific conditions are met and applies provisions to rental agreements entered into before, on, or after the effective date of the measure.

Detailed Summary:
Allows a landlord to prohibit smoking inside dwelling units or interior common areas after a tenancy begins,
provided the change:
 Applies only to large developments (projects of 20 or more units);
 Does not take effect until the end of a fixed-term tenancy;
 Preserves at least one designated outdoor smoking area on the premises;
 Applies to developments planned or built together under specified land use or development agreement
authorities; and
 Is preceded by at least 90 days’ written notice to tenants.
Aligns definitions of “smoking,” “inhalant delivery system,” and “tobacco products” in smoking policy disclosures
laws with existing public health statutes.

AMENDMENT ADOPTED

The amendment applies provisions to tenancies in dwelling units developed with a development agreement under ORS 94.504 to 94.528 or that share a wall with another unit (instead of multifamily dwelling or a collection of multifamily or single-family housing unit). It exempts tenancies within an accessible unit. Increases timeline for written notice to the tenant to 180 days. It also modifies the definition of “smoking.”