[Buttons12]

Get a check from a friend and say "Sorry, it was just rented. You would have been a wonderful tenant." Show them the check. If someone else rents, and there is subsequent inquiry, "Oh that deal fell through, the check was no good. Sorry I didn’t keep a record of it." Not offering legal advice

Neither am I, but it'd be totally legal for the judge to decide you're full of it, and find for the plaintiff, and lay a few extra thumbscrews on you for good measure.
As my dad often says, "You even think about renting to anyone, I'll drag you over to landlord-tenant court and make you sit there all day." (And it has happened. I recommend it.)

[Tuketu]

You are probably “smart” enough to rat yourself out to the judge. LOL