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• REBNY’s Residential Management Council Proposes Guidelines for Implementing No-Smoking Policies (PDF) 

The Real Estate Board of New York’s (REBNY) Residential Management Council has created a guide to help managing agents to best inform their buildings and boards who are considering implementing a no-smoking policy. The guide provides best practices and serves as a starting point for understanding how no-smoking policies can be implemented.

Under existing city, state, and federal law, owners of rental apartment buildings are free to adopt a non-smoking policy with regard to the individual residential units that are free market. There are currently no laws in New York prohibiting smoking within an apartment in residential buildings, but implementing a smoking ban could lower maintenance costs and insurance rates.

“Current trends to regulate smoking in public spaces, such as in parks and restaurants, have sparked interest in pursuing non-smoking policies for residential buildings,” said Steven Spinola, President of REBNY. “Since there is no settled case law regarding this issue, our Residential Management Council has laid the groundwork to open communication and provide helpful insight into addressing this issue.”

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