I would be very unhappy having to deal with this - You have my sympathy top level point is that you should put your family and your own health first.
My suggestion is that you consider visiting weekly to gauge progress(or lack of) -That way you don’t worry all month about what might or might not be happening. Going forward (I suspect with a new tennent) - Three monthly safety inspections are good value for peace of mind.
It’s an interesting problem.
I would not get close to trying to help her to solve her problems. It’s none of your business, really, and you won’t be able to do it anyway.
As for her suitability as a tenant, if she’s not causing damage and she is paying the rent, is there actually a problem? You’ll have to clean up and generally sort stuff out whatever tenant you have, so is she really any different?
Maybe you could agree with her to visit every two months, say, to check for damage or vermin? With an undertone that the place should be vaguely clean and tidy when you visit.
It’s easy to be horrified by this kind of thing, that was my first reaction, but ultimately, you can’t make people’s life choices for them.
You’ve had a charmed life if you haven’t needed to go in for 2 years! A messy long term tenant is a good tenant imo. Lol.
Jeez, brimming over with the milk of human kindness this thread !
Maybe at least put a call into social services, mental health or something ?
She’d really appreciate that!
So would social services 
Stop peeking through my fucking windows then.
Potm.
Might well do
Jeez …. Nescafe 
Lol, I’d give her her notice then and there. It’s fucking horrifying.
Yes, I am a shit.
I handed her a formal warning notice this evening. Outlining the tenancy violations (Smoking / upkeep etc) along with the verbal assurance she gets one chance and this is it. I hold little hope she is capable of ‘just pulling her socks up’ she simply does not have the power to do so. I’m guessing she will either do a late night bunk (Result) or dig in for long fun ride of eviction. I’m not a stranger to alcoholism and made her aware of this. Currently she is not asking for help. As a progressive illness things may need to get a lot worse before she receives the ‘gift’ of desperation required for meaningful change.
Arranged marriage to Stronzetto?
There speaks a man who has never had to deal with this sort of bullshit. 
Personally I’d just leave the oven on when I depart the inspection and let natural(-gas) selection take its course…
Protip: Human Life is only precious to the possessor - otherwise to one-another we’re just a Virus-With-Shoes getting in the fucking way on public transport, thieving oxygen and voting Rong.
I’ve been in your house, and seen how you sleep in a tent, i dont need to peep in your windows you boring cunt
When I first arrived in the smoke from Liverpool in 1979, I rented a one bedroom flat in a decrepit old Victorian terrace on Brixton Hill. A few years later, the old lady on the ground floor set fire to her chip pan and when the fire brigade saw the state of the building (particularly the electrics), they condemned the place, and Lambeth council stepped in.
Even though I didn’t qualify to be on the housing waiting list, I was unbelievably fortunate - Lambeth offered me a one bedroom flat in a brand newly built low-rise block of 6 flats in Camberwell. I bought this flat five years later under the “right to buy” scheme with a 50% discount.
After Ann and I married and Flo came along a few years later, we decided to buy a bigger place - that was the house most of you know in Ilford. Unfortunately, because of the taboo surrounding ex-council flats at that time, the Camberwell flat wouldn’t sell, so when we moved to Ilford, I rented out the flat.
This was my only experience of being a landlord. To save agency fees, I did the advert myself and “interviewed” the folk who were interested. One of these was a softly spoken gentleman from Peru called Javier. He was the perfect tenant for three years, always paid the rent on time and kept the place immaculate. He even offered to pay for a new set of keys after he was mugged and spent two nights in hospital. (the keys turned up anyway after a few weeks because they had a Sentinel tag attached to them). When he got married and left, I put it the flat on the market again and this time it sold, no problem.
So, I consider myself to have been very fortunate, both as a landlord and with my dabbles into the property market (garages excepted) 
I googled this out of interest and got some unexpected results. 
Give yourself some credit for good judgement mate. Not only did I find myself renting property to more than one set of human dumprats, but years-gone-by I dated a few of them too … pretty much used to be one long drawn-out episode of car-crash rubbernecker TV, and it took me WAY the fuck too long to learn to not keep smashing my face into that pertickuler brick wall! 
Don’t ever google what that flat in Camberwell is worth now!
I fear that post is now a precursor to, Too Late !
