Landlords brace for legalized cannabis

Complications ahead for tenants smoking in multi-unit sites

WATERLOO REGION — If you’re a tenant who shares your building with other renters, you’ll likely have to hold off on sparking up in celebration of legalized marijuana next month.

When recreational cannabis becomes legal on Oct. 17, one of the few places Canadians can legally smoke will be in private homes. For renters who live in multi-unit buildings, where they’re allowed to light up is a bit more complicated.

Landlords across the country are trying to enact rules for their properties they say will balance Canadians’ new freedom to consume marijuana, while protecting tenants’ right to live in a smoke-free environment. That’s easier said than done.

“I think it’s going to take years of conversations, and challenges,” said Andrew Macallum, president of the Waterloo Regional Apartment Management Association.

He expects it could be a long time before the battles over where tenants can and can’t smoke marijuana are settled, and predicts those disputes will bog down Ontario’s Landlord and Tenant Board in the process.

“The board is already overwhelmed with cases and challenges. These marijuana challenges are likely going to inundate the board,” Macallum.

Many condo corporations are also passing bylaws that prohibit smoking marijuana in their buildings. Those rules already are facing legal opposition from people with prescriptions for medicinal marijuana.

Tenants with smoke allergies are launching legal fights of their own.

The Region of Waterloo, meanwhile, is updating its lease agreements for tenants in 2,800 affordable housing units to ban the smoking of marijuana in any of its residential buildings.

The only exception will be for people with medical marijuana prescriptions who are residents of the region’s Sunnyside Home long-term care facility — and they’ll need to light up in designated outdoor smoking areas.

Even tenants in affordable housing units who have grandfathered smoking rights for tobacco won’t be able to burn marijuana. The new bans won’t include things like edible pot or oils, or growing up to four marijuana plants per person, however.

“They’ll be allowed to grow plants, they just can’t smoke them within their unit,” explained Kris Fletcher, regional clerk for the Region of Waterloo.

“Basically, there will be an extension of our no-smoking laws to include cannabis, unless it’s medicinal cannabis.”

Fletcher said the regional government will release more details about the new restrictions on cannabis in the coming weeks. She anticipates some wrinkles will still need to be ironed out after legalization arrives.

“Are we perfect? Probably not. Will there be hiccups? There might be,” she said. “But I think we’re progressing.”

Macallum said landlords are being forced to decide whose rights trump whose. Complicating matters are older buildings where some longtime renters have the right to smoke tobacco in their units — in which case the rules for smoking pot may vary depending on the landlord.

Only newly built apartment complexes can be declared entirely smoke-free before tenants move in. That means most landlords will need to consult with their existing renters before bringing in across-theboard bans on cannabis smoke — something that won’t be easy because some tenants have strong feelings on both sides of the issue.

“For landlords big and small, you’ve got people put in the middle of these contradictions. You’ve got one neighbour who wants a smoke-free environment, and you’ve got another who says ‘I’m entitled to my right to smoke,’” Macallum said.

There is much less concern among landlords around edible pot or cannabis oils, Macallum said. The biggest worry is around smoke in buildings where people share walls, hallways and ventilation systems.

Landlords also have worries about tenants who plan to grow marijuana in their units, and what that might mean for things like humidity damage or increased hydro use, he said.

“The big question there is who is supposed to police the number of plants?” he said. “If a landlord suspects someone is growing more than four plants, should they be phoning someone?”

The easiest solution from many landlords’ perspective, he suggests, is for the province to enact a smoke-free law across all multi-dwelling rental properties.

“I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch, to be perfectly honest,” Macallum said. “If your goal is to have a healthy and safe community, then smoke that is impacting other people, including children, is not part of that.”