Agent Offfers
Realty Times TV

Can Landlords Still Prohibit Cannabis Use if it’s Legal?

Written by Posted On Sunday, 23 June 2019 03:40
Can Landlords Still Prohibit Cannabis Use if it’s Legal?

As laws continue to change across the states regarding legal cannabis use, landlords are left floundering to keep up work out how it affects their lease. If you’re trying to figure out what to include in your property lease regarding cannabis use, read on and we’ll walk you through it.

The legal status of cannabis use in the US

Since the Hemp Farming Act of 2018, certain cannabis strains - i.e. hemp that contains less than 0.3% THC - are legal at the federal level. However, the legal status at state level still differs across the country.

While many states seem to be moving towards aligning their own laws with the new federal laws, cannabis use is still more heavily regulated in some states than others.

While this is noteworthy, it doesn’t affect property owners as much as you might think. Regardless of whether or not cannabis use is legal, landlords still have full control over whether or not it’s prohibited within their own private property - you just need to set this out clearly in your lease agreement.

Your property lease

The lease agreement with your tenant is a binding legal contract. You’re at liberty to prohibit anything you like regardless of legal status (as long as it’s not ‘unconscionable’, but more on that later).

For example, you can prohibit smoking, pets, loud noise, and many other legal actions. That means you can also prohibit cannabis use.

It’s important to note that legal cannabis comes in many forms. As such, a clause prohibiting smoking in general might not cover everything. For example, some legal cannabis can be eaten or consumed as part of a beverage.

For your lease to hold up in court, all prohibitions need to be clearly defined and can’t be unconscionable. It’s not easy to define exactly what this term means. Essentially, a judge can deem your contract to be unconscionable if he or she feels it’s an unreasonable and unjust demand.

When marijuana was illegal at the federal level, it might have been difficult to argue that banning cannabis use was unconscionable. However, now that medial cannabis is legal, this matter becomes a little bit trickier.

For example, what if your tenant has a legitimate medical reason to use medicinal cannabis? And what if they have a note from their doctor recommending that they use it? In this situation, if you were to evict a tenant for using medical cannabis in a violation of your lease agreement, and that the tenant was to challenge your decision in court, it’s possible that the judge could see it from their perspective and deem the contract unconscionable.

Of course, I’m no lawyer and nothing that I say in this article should be taken as legal advice., so if you ever do find yourself in this position, seek legal advice from a qualified professional.

What can I do if my tenant uses cannabis?

Assuming you stipulated in your contract clearly that cannabis use was prohibited, you can send your tenant an eviction notice. Your tenant may appeal this, in which case the matter would be resolved in the courts.

This is often more hassle than it’s worth and many landlords would prefer to avoid getting caught up in a legal dispute. It’s usually advisable to try to resolve the matter out of court with your tenant first.

Rate this item
(0 votes)
Elison Evan

Latest from Elison Evan

More in this category: > What To Keep In Mind When Using Professional Painting Services for Your Home How to get interesting flowers for New Home
back to top

Agent Resource

Before You List

Today's Headlines

Realty Times

From buying and selling advice for consumers to money-making tips for Agents, our content, updated daily, has made Realty Times® a must-read, and see, for anyone involved in Real Estate.

Links

Sections

Search

Joomla! Debug Console

Session

Profile Information

Memory Usage

Database Queries