I hadn't really thought about enforcing this policy until very recently, when it was determined during an inspection that the tenant had been smoking both cigarettes and marijuana indoors.

One exception to your thought process many times in those areas that decay like that Commercial LEAVES and the nice NEW shopping gets built where there are nice new homes and incomes that can afford to shop.. what a lot of these areas is left with is the corner liquor store .. you know the ones that have Bullitt proof windows and sell cigarettes' one at a time.. 

Those stimulus checks were for cigarettes and beer.

However, we did more of a rent-to-own (base was $5400) as they were heavy smokers & we didn't want it back.

Non smoker here.

The apartment building currently has 3 rented units and 3 empty units. 2 of the units that are empty can be rented within a couple of weeks of us closing in late July but the third unit is going to take some time to renovate because there was a smoker that lived in the unit for 13 years and nothing has been touched since she moved out...

@Jennifer BuchananSome of the things that need to be done are:Removing cigarette odor and painting wallsReplacing a toiletInstalling new locksResecure kitchen range went hood pipingKitchen and bathroom counters need to be recaulked.Replacing blindsReattach a cabinet in the kitchen

Rent will be prorated through August until I find a tenant minus costs until sept 1st at which time I will return the remaining deposit minus costs.She seemed satisfied with that and happy to be let out of the lease.One change I made as a result of the comments here is to start asking if they have pets or are smokers, I mention No Pets, No Smoking, twice in my listing but still have people apply who have pets.

Not only was she not nice but she didn't take care of the property in that there was garbage in the yard, cigarette butts, etc.

Your job here is to restate the conversation in such a way that they realize that the $20 is them already receiving great value, because no one else is going to take a smoker or a barking dog and certainly not at the rent they're paying now.