Situations: how smoke odor problems tend to unfold

Each situation here is a made-up example built from common patterns in older apartment buildings. None describes a real unit, person or result. They walk through the decisions a landlord, manager or renter faces, where things usually go right or wrong, and what a careful next step looks like.

Every example here is illustrative, built from common situations. None is a real job, customer or address.

Example: turning over a garden-level studio after a long-term smoker A hypothetical small-building owner has two weeks between residents in a garden-level studio where the departing tenant smoked indoors for years. A damp wall complicates the plan. This walk-through shows the decisions in order.
Example: the smell that arrived with the first cold snap A hypothetical renter signs a lease for a 1920s one-bedroom in July. The unit smells fine. In October the radiators come on and a stale cigarette odor fills the bedroom. Here is how the renter documents it and how the landlord responds.
Example: a four-unit converted house where smoke climbs the stairs A hypothetical owner of a large old house divided into four apartments hears from two upstairs residents about cigarette smoke. The source is one ground-floor unit, but the paths run through a shared stair and an abandoned chimney flue.
Example: the same smoke turnover, documented two different ways Two hypothetical landlords each turn over a one-bedroom after a resident who smoked indoors against the lease. The work is similar. The records are not, and that difference shapes what happens with the deposit.
Example: making a twelve-unit walk-up smoke-free, one renewal at a time A hypothetical owner of a three-story brick walk-up hears regular smoke complaints and decides to make the building smoke-free. Existing leases limit how fast that can happen. This example follows the year, including the units that turned over along the way.
Example: a renter, a balcony below and a bedroom window A hypothetical renter in a high-rise near the park keeps the bedroom window open on summer nights and wakes to cigarette smoke. Nothing is wrong with the unit itself. This example follows how the renter, the manager and the neighbor sorted it out.