Among the most pressing concerns are multiple risks to the health and the quality of life of non-smoking residents
With the legalization of recreational cannabis rapidly approaching, Toronto condo lawyer Denise Lash is dealing with her fair share of condo owners implementing new rules about growing and consuming the plant.
In particular, the pungent fumes of the plant can seep through condo walls and invade nearby residential units, posing multiple quality-of-life and health risks to non-smoking tenants.
“So now that we have marijuana that’s going to be legalized, there’s a real concern that there’s going to be more (pot) smokers,” she told The Canadian Press.
Crossbridge Condominium Services CEO Sandro Zuliani, whose company manages approximately 80,000 units in the GTA, emphasized that no full air-tight construction method exists.
“You can never wrap it in Saran Wrap, per se, to prevent that smoke from migrating,” Zuliani explained. “Even someone going out onto their balcony, the smoke can make its way into an adjoining unit.”
“What the solution is, you make the building completely smoke-free.”
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Saskatchewan-based real estate lawyer Brandon Hicks recently called on condo dwellers to establish pot-use rules for their buildings now rather than later.
Hicks, who is serving as the president of a condo board representing 18 stacked units in Regina, stated that waiting after the drug becomes legal on October 17 to draft said rules might prove difficult – not to mention deeply unpopular among landlords already up in arms about the very real possibility of tenants smoking or growing the plant inside their units.
The lawyer said that in anticipation of cannabis legalization, his board has already formed a 4-member committee that will review the building’s rules and suggest revisions, which will include a full ban on all types of smoking (including vaping) that will cover patios, as well.
Residents will be voting on the prohibition at the condo board’s annual general meeting before October. Saskatchewan’s Condominium Property Act mandates that any changes to a building’s bylaws needs to get the approval of 2/3 of the condo board’s voting members.
“There's just too many issues, we thought, that could potentially come up: smoke migration between units, decreases potentially in property values,” Hicks told CBC News.
