I wrote:
And while you cannot legally turn down a tenant who is a smoker, you
can put a clause in the lease that prohibits smoking of any kind inside
the house by either the tenants or visitors.

So Bob asked:
Is this really true? |I've never heard of laws prohibiting discrimination
against smokers.


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...