It deals a significant blow to their credit, their ability to obtain financing/housing/auto loan/etc.

She did start paying the new rent and isn't blowing up your phone, so it's probably all fine. 

Any applicant can promise you the moon as far as wanting to be a long-term tenant, but if that comes with strings attached as far as you giving them cheaper rent than you would have given any other applicant - and with no guarantee that they'd stay - then as they say, they are doing you no good other than blowing hot air up your skirt.Couple 1 has not made any pie in the sky vague promises with zero guarantees. 

Document that he fails on this criteria and then you can blow them off. 

People who smoke will always end up smoking inside, or supposedly blowing smoke out the window (as if none of it ends up inside), or they will smoke right outside and the smoke will blow inside, or they will smoke away from the building and then come inside and make everything smell like smoke anyway.In other words, there is no way a smoker will not affect your rental with their smoke.So, the good news is, with a M2M, you can just give them notice to move.I do disagree that you would have to worry about any kind of discrimination complaint.  

They'll probably stay anyway.Either option would blow a small claims court action out of the water, which is your goal.  

You cannot control wind blowing a tree branch or whole thing down and where it falls.

It's the easiest way to do it without potential blow back about any type of discrimination, etc.I really question why she'd want to move from a place she's settled into, where she's been for 11 years.  

Instead of trying to soften the blow, i told them that going rents in the area were significantly higher than what they were paying.

To soften the blow of the rent increases, take care of any maintenance, repair issues immediately and add a few cheap upgrades to the unit, extra shelving for the garage, add an exterior light or replace an outdated one inside.