post-painting tobacco smoke abatement

I have an old GE "electronic air cleaner" that functions like, and looks similar to the commonly seen honeywell units. I assumed that was what you had. If I were you, I'd get a honeywell or similar unit installed, and keep your tenants.

Is it possible to get furnace and ducts treated with ozone? It would seem like this would be a good option in your case.

Bob

So Bob asked:

Not specifically with regards to smokers, but my understanding from consulting with other landlords is you are not allowed to discriminate against any _reasonably_qualified_ potential tenant. This includes not being able to deny a qualified applicant on the basis of their personal habits, including smoking, unless those habits pose a public health risk, such as leaving trash in the yard and the like.

Now, if you want to turn down a smoker as a tenant and say that their being a smoker is the reason, you could make the argument that the smoker poses a potential hazard to the house and a danger to your investment - how many house fires were begun last year because of careless smoking? - but you would be involved in a costly legal process at that point and someone could still argue that there are ways to protect yourself in that case.

One possible way of protecting yourself legally and not having to worry about discrimination claims is to set a different scale for the security deposit (say, double what it would be for a comparable non-smoker tenant) on the basis that smokers have a higher probability of causing damage to the property than non-smokers...smoke permeation of surfaces, burns in floors/carpets, etc. not to mention the above-referenced fire hazard. The downside is that you may find a tenant who's a smoker who's willing to plunk down that super-sized security deposit and then you're stuck with a tenant you don't really want and have to deal with the aftereffects.

FWIW...