Smokers

[Brian Christensen]

I live in Utah. I have a rental and am working with a Prop management company who claim they can't refuse smokers, but can tell them not to smoke on the property. Can I refuse smokers as tenants? Is there somewhere I can look to see what the laws for landlords are?Thanks for your expertise. Brian

[David Veeder]

Smokers are not a protected class as far is fair housing laws go.  I maintain smoke free homes except for tenants that I inherited through acquisition.   I have had expensive issues trying to get rid of smoke smell.  Standard for me is replace carpet and pad, wipe down all walls to clean them, paint with Shellac based primer before painting everything.  Often all of the outlets and switches need to be replaced.  I have used an Ozone generator when not being this aggressive with makeready , and have had units smelling good but with in weeks the smoke smell is back.