Applicants who smoke

[Megan Thomson]

One of our quality standards for renters is that they are non-smoking. It says so on our application and applicants need to indicate whether they are non-smoking or not. We just had some prospective tenants turn in applications and they said “non-smokers” on the application, but I noticed they smelled strongly of smoke and even their applications (the paper!) smells like smoke. Can I deny them for this reason even though they said non-smoking? 

[Brian Adzadi]

@Megan Thomson

You know they smoke, they know they smoke but of course they are still going to claim to be non-smokers. Unfortunately the burden of proof will be upon you if they ever take you to court for declining them.

Unless you have a video of them smoking, you don't have much of a leg to stand on when you have to explain yourself. Are you going to tell the judge, "They reeked of cigarette"?

Just to cover yourself,  find other non-discriminatory means to decline them like credit score, criminal background and eviction history.