Apartment Will Not Enforce Smoking Rules [virginia]
My partner lives in a senior community (55+) for low income people. Over the past 6 months or so, a few residents of the apartments have started smoking in their units, on their balconies, etc. As a result, cigarette smoke is drifting up into other units, including my partner's, whenever windows are left open. His patio is also unusable when the smokers are out there. There's frequently smoke drifting out into the hallways from people smoking in their units. It's very noticeable and disgusting.
My partner has numerous health issues, and both his parents died from lung cancer (smoking related), so it's become a distressing thing for him.
The front of the building, right outside the leasing office, has a large sign advertising the community as being "SMOKE FREE." The lease itself has a clause prohibiting smokers in and around the buildings (20 ft+). It's also advertised online as being smoke free.
We confronted management about it. The manager responded denying any rules against smoking existed. This has led to a heated exchange back and forth between us where we've provided documentation showing that smoking is prohibited including a picture of the front door and a copy excerpts from the lease itself. In response, rather than enforcing the rules (which are pretty clear), the manager has arbitrarily decided to inform all residents that smoking is allowed now, despite what's in the lease and despite advertising the community as being smoke free.
My partner has a bird feeder hanging on his patio and is one of maybe four people that have them in the entire community. Shortly after this exchange began about the smoking, management informed all residents that they are no longer allowed to have bird feeders on their balconies. There's no rule against them in the lease, it's been hanging there for years without any issues, and frankly given the context of what's happening, seems targeted at my partner.
Do we have any options? Don't even know if he can leave because the same lease agreement that management is ignoring prohibits him from leaving for ~9-10 more months.
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