[Closed] Neighbours smoking causing issues in my house

Legally speaking I don't think there's anything you can do, a council complaint maybe, but given how bad they are at dealing with this sort of thing, like noise from parties etc. it's probably not worth the hassle.

I think diplomacy is the way forward here.. Do you have and otherwise friendly relationship with them?

You could phone the police (tel: 999) but I'd think they have bigger fish to fry.

I am going to speak to them

Seems like a good idea.

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lol @ perchy

People still smoke? Do you live in a third world country or some kind of ghetto? Here in "the West" nicotine addicts "vape". Imagine if you will, someone sexually molesting a tiny robot and you're kind of half way there.

People who vape insist that the practice is completely undetectable to other humans and as such, they regularly enjoy vaping in areas where it is prohibited.

You should educate your neighbours about vaping. They'll probably be the first people in your backwater to try it, and soon you'll not have to worry about the smoke, you'll just enjoy a slightly nauseating, sickly chemical smell exhaled by your neighbours which you won't even notice.

Ughhh, must be minging! Unless the diplomacy works I don't think you'll have any redress regards the stench. Fag ends might be a different story. I realise that you've not caused this problem but could you install some sort of positive ventilation system in your house. Drawing clean air in and keeping the air at a positive pressure stopping the reek getting inside?

Take inspiration from this thread [url= http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/what-should-i-eat-between-now-and-thursday-to-ensure-my-farts-are-hideous ]http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/what-should-i-eat-between-now-and-thursday-to-ensure-my-farts-are-hideous[/url] and each time they go for a smoke, step outside and fart in their general direction.

We had this for a decade. Right outside our bedroom window (both ours and theirs were ground floor and adjacent). ****ing disgusting to be woken up at 5am by some ****er having a smoke.

Eventually they moved. Sorry, can't give better suggestions. Any chance you could build a wall (and make them pay for it)?

It's second hand smoke so I'd look into whether they are causing a [url= https://www.gov.uk/guidance/nuisance-smoke-how-councils-deal-with-complaints ]public nuisance[/url] in the same way that smoke from a garden fire or a BBQ is if it's frequent enough.

[i]Councils must look into complaints about smoke from premises that could be a ‘statutory nuisance’ (covered by the Environmental Protection Act 1990).

For the smoke to count as a statutory nuisance it must do one of the following:

unreasonably and substantially interfere with the use or enjoyment of a home or other premises
injure health or be likely to injure health
If they agree that a statutory nuisance is happening, has happened or will happen in the future, councils must serve an abatement notice. This requires whoever’s responsible to stop or restrict the smoke. The notice will usually be served on the person responsible but can also be served on the owner or occupier of the premises.[/i]

Speak to your council.

Either that or rig up an IR sensor to switch on a fan blowing over jeyes fluid (or anything else fairly stinky) whenever they're standing outside.

edit: The above are only applicable if speaking to them does nothing.

Move.

Similar issue that my colleague had but his house is adjacent to the side entrance of a massive hospital complex which has a no smoking ban everywhere, including the car parks. Staff don't even have a smoking shelter, apparently. The result is or was, that staff and visitors would stand outside my colleagues house smoking. Somebody stood outside all times of day and night. His house is a small terrace with a very small front garden. Probably 5 feet from the garden wall to his front door.
He dug up some concrete behind his low garden wall, planted some shrubs and and set up a sprinkler which went off randomly. People stood outside his house having a fag would get soaked. That seemed to do the trick until the council came round and told him he had to stop it.
Might be an idea for you to try?

Move house if asking them nicely doesn't work. Getting into disputes won't help. It certainly won't help you sell your house.

Strategically placed smoke sensor controlled sprinklers should learn them to move.

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Shocking! Just imagine someone doing something completely legal on their own property - thats scandalous!
Seriously though - its not up to you to dictate to your neighbours what they can & can't do - so either suck it up cupcake or move.

Imagine if you will, someone sexually molesting a tiny robot (etc etc)

Are you hoping that the constant repetition of this will eventually make it funny ?

Just wondering.

Yeh just choose your time and ask them nicely.

Seriously though - its not up to you to dictate to your neighbours what they can & can't do - so either suck it up cupcake or move.

My, you sound lovely. I just bet all your friends and family come running to you with their problems.

OP - I would hope that a quiet word would work. If not can you get a very tall wood panel fence put on the boundary? Reducing the gap between the houses to 1m might force them to go elsewhere.

Seriously though - its not up to you to dictate to your neighbours what they can & can't do - so either suck it up cupcake or move.

Ponders for a moment if the poster might be a smoker.

Wanders off with his confirmation bias that smokers are self orientated knobends further enhanced, only mollified a little by the knowledge that they'll be shuffling off this mortal coil just a little earlier for the privilege.

Seriously though - its not up to you to dictate to your neighbours what they can & can't do - so either suck it up cupcake or move.

It is when it has the potential to effect his family's health.

Talking is always worth a try OP maybe they just don't realise it's an issue.

its not up to you to dictate to your neighbours what they can & can't do - so either suck it up cupcake or move.

As someone who lived directly above a heavy smoker in a flat that somehow seemed to draw air through the floors and walls I can relate to literally being woken by the feeling of chocking on someone else's acrid disgusting fumes.

Whilst there is an element of live and let live, it is a horrid experience to HAVE to put up with. Sympathy awarded, patronising not required.

Have you checked out really loud smoke alarms?

Are you hoping that the constant repetition of this will eventually make it funny ?

Just wondering.

I'm with you Neal!
Seems a lot of people in these parts have a strange robo-kink

I have a similar problem, I live in a maisonette and share a communal staircase with one neighbour, this area stinks and sometimes comes through my door. You can practically see the smoke coming out from around their door it is so bad they also walk down/up the stairs smoking despite the landlord putting no smoking signs everywhere.

I used to smoke on the odd occasion but would always go outside to avoid this issue for others.

nealglover

Are you hoping that the constant repetition of this will eventually make it funny ?

You seem tense. Perhaps you should vape.

[quote=jimjam ]
You seem tense. Perhaps you should [s]vape[/s] molest a robot.

A few years ago got a call to a terraced house, smoke was entering the house from the neighbour next door,lifted the carpets upstairs near the adjoining wall and the smell of fag smoke was horrendous, all i could suggest was lots of frame sealant and hope the chap moved or became an nhs patient quite soon, no smoking in hospitals.

and the thing with extenal smokers is why do they always smoke in doorways like rabbits near their rabbit hole, just so they can run into their hole if scared.

also they can manage to shove a lighted piece of paper and tobacco leaves in their gob, and hold it with 2 fingers yet have no ability to actually place the thing in a rubbish bin when finished.

As an ex smoker - putting fag-ends in the bin is asking for trouble.

slimjim78 - Member
Seems a lot of people in these parts have a strange robo-kink

MOTOKO!!!

It would be worth speaking with your local authority re statutory nuisance.

If the talking doesn't work then this is foolproof....

On the wall of YOUR house opposite where they stand, put up lots of laminated posters of blown up photos of smoke diseased lungs and anti-smoking slogans.
If they rip them them down (which they probably will) call the police for trespass and damage to your property. No way that can fail 😉

MOTOKO!!!

MOTOKI !!! ?

Give them free cigarettes. Lots of them, with the highest tar and nicotine content you can find. You may need to buy them abroad and smuggle them in.

It will take a while, but in just a few years your problem will solve itself.

I'd take to shitting on their drive whenever they go out for a tab.
Make sure to engage eye contact and maintain a friendly demeanour throughout.
Then post your used bogroll through their letter box just to make sure they get the message.
Either that or talk to them with a running chainsaw in your hand while asking them where they got their curtains from.
There's no need to be rude while you're threatening some one and it's so much more British to maintain the higher horse position.
Either that or just send Mick round. 😯

its not up to you to dictate to your neighbours what they can & can't do.

its not up to you to dictate to your neighbours what they can & can't do.

Awesome. I'm having a rave and an open-air sex party tomorrow then.

PM please

Its not unreasonable for the neighbour to wish to smoke outside their house nor is it unreasonable to expect that the smoke does not enter anothers property or impact on a neighbour

Lets hope the two neighbours are more adult and conciliatory than most of STW

It is when it has the potential to effect his family's health.

Does it? Really??

Have a word with them about the cig butts, that's totally out of order.

WHat sort of judgement/moral code means you object to the mess but not the health implications?

WARNING: genuine question content as I dont get why you care about the mess but dont mind them damaging your health

You can always tidy up the butts yourself its not like you can clean the air you breath

I've been on the other end of the problem - ie I've been the nuisance smoker.

I noticed that when I went into the back garden for a fag, next door would shut their window (they always have all their windows open for some reason).

I asked them about it one day - "do you smell my cigarette smoke when I'm smoking in the garden?" They said that sometimes yes, they did.

So I took to smoking at the far end of the garden - well away from their house. But they'd still go though the shutting the window routine when I went out to smoke. In the end I just had to accept that short of giving up smoking or moving house, I wasn't going to please them, so I stopped worrying about it. I was undertaking a legal activity on my own property and had taken reasonable steps to minimise the nuisance.

As it happens, I've given up smoking now, so problem solved all round.

Next time they go out and smoke next to your house go out and piss all over your wall. If it's ok for them to do a disgusting habit next to your house then vice a versa!!! Better still build a compost heap next to their boundary but on your land and tell them it's to mask the smell of smoking. Make it really unpleasant for them to smoke there. B@stards. Or move.

You can always tidy up the butts yourself its not like you can clean the air you breath

Quite simply, the level of exposure to any toxins is negligible.

You will have 100 times the threat from standing at a bus or railway station.

There is no real threat to anyone's health from it.

Reading the above about a smelly compost heap somehow reminded me of the story of a woman who inserted prawns into the linings of the curtains before leaving her bloke, the stench drove him crazy! 😆

Ok.

Because it ****ing stinks.

Its ****ing minging.

buzz1024 - Member
Shocking! Just imagine someone doing something completely legal on their own property - thats scandalous!
Seriously though - its not up to you to dictate to your neighbours what they can & can't do - so either suck it up cupcake or move.

There's a thing called common decency. i'd imagine the OP will find out about that if they actually have a word with neighbours. But when I smoked, I'd have be fairly receptive to anyone with problems with it. They need to ask you firstly though, I doubt the neighbours even know there's a problem.

If they act like bawbags(you also need to be reasonable in your expectations.), then you can escalate. First port of call is to speak to them like human beings firstly.

They're probably oblivious to the fact you've even noticed, TBH.

Talk to them, in an "are you aware..." sort of way rather than trying to tell them what to do. If they're considerate they'll smoke somewhere else / find an alternative, if they're not then you're probably screwed whatever you do.

Quite simply, the level of exposure to any toxins is negligible.

You will have 100 times the threat from standing at a bus or railway station.

There is no real threat to anyone's health from it.

Source for this claim?

Take up smoking yourself, go out whenever they do and start conversations on really, really boring subjects. It'll have short term health implications for you, but in the long run they'll stop coming outside for fear of running in to you.

If smoking's ok, why do they do it outside?

Quite simply, the level of exposure to any toxins is negligible.

You will have 100 times the threat from standing at a bus or railway station.

There is no real threat to anyone's health from it.

Tell that to Roy Castle.

Oh wait, you can't.

More of the professionally outraged/offended.

Trust non of you clean-air/antisocial lot run log-burners/cars? Wear copious amounts of body spray/aftershave? Use loud power tools at all? Or inflict your horrible offspring onto the ears of others? All of which can be a stress to a third party thereby damaging health... No? Good, cos that would be massively hypocritical.

Live and let live.

Everyone seems a little tense today....

We all know we occasionally do things that annoy our neighbours

FIll their homes with noxious cancer causing chemicals is rare and almost universally objectionable

the level of exposure to any toxins is negligible.

You can always spot the smokers in these conversations. Defensive to the max that their habit doesn't affect others.

Live and let live.

Passive smoking is more Live and Let Die.

Dun dun dun, dun dun dun.

Consideration is no longer fashionable, smoking is inconsiderate full stop ! you have my sympathy, hope you get it sorted, diplomacy can severely confuse the selfish and inconsiderate, good luck

Fire extinguisher and motion sensor high power leds

I wouldn't care less whether or not they like it.

Everyone seems a little tense today....

Am flippin gasping fer a tab but this bastard keeps giving me the evils..

thestabiliser - Member
Everyone seems a little tense today....
Am flippin gasping fer a tab but this bastard keeps giving me the evils.

😆

Thanks for all the constructive help. I will speak to them and see what happens.

smoking is inconsiderate full stop !

It really isn't.

in the situation described by the op it is, and in many others too.

But it's not inconsiderate by default.

I've been stopped for almost 10 years now, but for the last few years I smoked, I pretty much always smoked outdoors away from anyone else, or on my own in the car while driving.
I was aware people didn't like it, so I was considerate.

It not impossible, and most of the smokers I know now are doing exactly the same.

Ignore the comments regarding the fact they are doing something legal on their own property.

You are responsible for ensuring that anything leaving your property is not a nuisance to others, think golf balls, sound, bright lights, odours, the list could go on and on. What they are doing is, therefore, against the law.

Rig up some speakers and play Rick Astley as loud as is legally possibly whenever they are out there, if talking to them doesn't work first, obviously

I have this problem from my own family living in the same house.

Lets be honest if you care so little about yourself that you smoke youre unlikely care about annoying someone else.

I would go into discussions with a back up plan.

"What they are doing is, therefore, against the law."what absolute tosh,mummy some oik is doing something i disapprove of,please make them stop.(Cougar
You can always spot the smokers in these conversations. Defensive to the max that their habit doesn't affect others.)Not true, confirmation bias me thinks.. 🙄

Put some of this where they smoke

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Put up a fan pointing in their general direction.

Hang rotten fish behind it.

See how they like it.

Tell that to Roy Castle.

Oh wait, you can't.

It's hardly the same as working for hours in a smoke filled night club.

Quite simply, the level of exposure to any toxins is negligible.
You will have 100 times the threat from standing at a bus or railway station.

There is no real threat to anyone's health from it.

Source for this claim?

The ratio may be wrong but think about it logically.

You cannot directly inhale the fumes from the exhaust of a diesel engine without dying within a few minutes.

You can inhale the fumes from a cigarette without dying for several years.

A large diesel engine will pump out a huge volume of exhaust gas which will contain carcinogenic chemicals, which you will be inhaling whilst stood in close proximity to the engine.

Do you really think that 6 smokers produce more poison than a 6000hp diesel engine?

IANAS.

Not smoking but the neighbour across the road from us put up an LED security light and it shone into our bedroom. I simply went across and asked him nicely if he would mind angling it down a few degrees, which he did. I think you need to go and have a chat with them about it rather than build up all these barriers in your mind.

Not really sure why we are playing a top trump of noxious fumes here gobby

Neither are pleasant nor things you expect your neighbour to introduce into your house and both are things most reasonable people would not do and most reasonable folk would object to.Unless you are a smoker I am not really getting what your point is

Its not bad because other things are worse? seems to be your argument- though of course you can poison me but dont make my garden untidy.

Unless you are a smoker I am not really getting what your point is

My pint is that people were suggesting that it posed a significant health risk for the OP and his family. It doesn't. The quantities of fumes involved are completely insignificant.

IANAS.

Just act like a normal person and have a polite friendly conversation. I'd ignore the silly suggestions as
it's easy to be brave and confrontational whilst sat behind a keyboard.

[img] [/img]

Stuff that weak skunk smell - this is the real deal siphoned out of a skunks smell balls.

What did they say?

Stuff that weak skunk smell - this is the real deal siphoned out of a skunks smell balls.

What did they say?

[img] /revision/latest?cb=20110212211406[/img]

Not smoking but the neighbour across the road from us put up an LED security light and it shone into our bedroom. I simply went across and asked him nicely if he would mind angling it down a few degrees, which he did. I think you need to go and have a chat with them about it rather than build up all these barriers in your mind.