Evicting a Smoker (CA)

[Douglas Stewart]

Back in the days before I heard of BP, I bought a condo rental in CA (did everything wrong, didn't even run numbers, by pure luck it cash flows).  I needed a tenant right away so I stupidly rented it to a smoker.  She said she only smokes 2-3 per day and would do it on the porch with the doors closed (yeah right).  We put this language in the lease agreement (minimal smoking on the porch with doors closed).  Fast forward 6 years and she's been a good tenant, but the condo is starting to smell more and more like smoke, not terribly bad, but enough to notice and enough to affect renting it to someone else when she moves out.  She doesn't seem to want to go anywhere, so I guess I have three questions: 1. can I evict this person for breaking the lease (we're on month-to-month now)?  2. would you evict her? Is the smoke damage already done, and I'll just deal with it when she moves out?  3.  How difficult is it to completely remove the smoke smell?  I assume there are some good professional services that do this, but wondering how good are they.

Big thank you to everyone here!!!

[Dennis M.]

@Douglas Stewart

If she pays keep her . When she leaves paint with kilz paint and use a ozone generator machine for several days . You’ll be fine