It is Illegal to smoke in this building – No it Frigging well is not!

I am staying in a house converted into five flats in a leafy part of Bristol. The five flats are all owned on a leasehold, that is to say they are private property. And in the entrance hall a notice has just gone up with a big no smoking sign stating “It is against the law to smoke in these premises.” Well that is a lie is it not?

It might just be that the communal areas are deemed to be a public space and so smoking might be illegal there. But I do not think that is actually the case. The Communal areas ( a staircase) are commonly owned private property.

The flats are slam dunk private property. Not that it would make it a “crime” but there is nothing in the leasehold agreement about smoking. This is private property and, as far as I can see, it is not yet a crime to smoke in your own home. So someone has put up a notice that is a lie. Is it the (useless) management company?

Or is it a resident, some prurient liberal who believes in freedom when it comes to things they support ( smoking pot, roaming on private land, cycling through red lights, not having a bath more than once a month) but denies liberty to others on unacceptable matters such as smoking, foxhunting, owning a gun, reading the Daily Mail in public, etc?