Strong Cannabis smell from neighbours above?

Jlawson118

So I've just bought my first home, which is a bottom floor apartment in a three-storey block, approximately 15 years old. The old owner had it from new and had rented it out to tenants before deciding she wanted to sell it after her last tenants moved out. I fell very lucky with this as she also agreed to leave the furniture in the offer, so I've really landed on my feet!

I had a few viewings of the property before making my offer, and everything was spot on for me and there was no smell. I got the keys on the 30th November, and when I viewed the property on my completion day, there was still no smell. Although it was there the next day. At first I thought it was down to the fridge bring disturbed (due to being off for a few months, it had been growing mould)
Though after giving it a thorough clean, the smell still stuck around. And the more I was in the property, the more I noticed the smell was mostly in my kitchen and bathroom. These two rooms are in the middle of the building and only have a ventilation system, to which I thought the other day that the smell could be coming through there. Over the last few weeks I've managed to drown the smell out with clean washing and other air fresheners. But when I got in on Friday night and smelt it, I put my nose to the air vents and established it was definitely coming through those.

Now I'm wondering what rights do I have? The one thing I've got at the moment is that there is a strict No Smoking policy within the building, which is stated within the leasehold. I also understand that some apartments within the building are owned, and I think some are rented out by the property owners, and/or privately.

I'm wondering if it is worth contacting the property owners and what rights I actually have here? Everything else with this property is great, and I'm over the moon with it. I just don't appreciate coming home to the smell of weed :mad:

HampshireH

Strict no smoking policy in all flats or just the communal areas? Not really sure how it could be enforced in peoples properties.

Does the neighbour above you have a balcony? Perhaps approach them nd see if they can smoke in a different room/ on the balcony.

I doubt you will get very far but having a friendly conversation generally doesnt do any harm

jonnygee2

First step, knock on their door, tell them the problem and ask them to stop. They may just stop it there and then, if they are casual users they probably thought it wasn't affecting anyone.

Next step is probably to contact the freeholder. They might contact the landlord of the property - which might be the smokers themselves or possibly they are tenants, in which case the landlord will get the letter. But all that is certain with this route is that it will take months to work if they've already been asked to stop and not done, if it ever works at all.

You could also try the police. They've been known to knock on someones door when weed smoking is causing a problem. They aren't going to make any arrests though, and it depends on the police force (the London Met are probably a lot less likely to anything than a small county force!).

Basically there are a few and uncertain routes to getting the problem fixed.

Norman_Castle

when I got in on Friday night and smelt it, I put my nose to the air vents and established it was definitely coming through those.

Regardless of what the smell is another property shouldn't be venting into your home. If its a shared vent there should be one way valves preventing air coming in.
Is it possible they are venting a small grow through the vent?


Knock the door to ask if its the same for them and how long the strange smell has been there for.

coffeehound

Please can you explain what the ventilation system is?

Edit: oops NC has already mentioned

Red-Squirrel_2

I don't mean to dismiss your concerns, but if all else fails you will get used to the smell really quickly and in a few months you won't even notice it.

Just the same way you get used to traffic/airport noise or a small kitchen etc.

BISCUIT1

I wouldn't consider it acceptable to have to get used to the smell of cannabis in my home.

coffeehound

Norman_Castle wrote: »

Regardless of what the smell is another property shouldn't be venting into your home. If its a shared vent there should be one way valves preventing air coming in.
Is it possible they are venting a small grow through the vent

Assuming it’s a heat-recovery ventilation system, it is probably down to the smoker blowing smoke out of a window that is below the system’s air inlet grille.

As a short-term measure the OP could tape over the outlets using say white duct tape until the root cause is hopefully addressed. It might take some time for the smell to be gone from the heat exchanger, filters and ducts, though.

Jlawson118

coffeehound wrote: »

Assuming it’s a heat-recovery ventilation system, it is probably down to the smoker blowing smoke out of a window that is below the system’s air inlet grille.

As a short-term measure the OP could tape over the outlets using say white duct tape until the root cause is hopefully addressed. It might take some time for the smell to be gone from the heat exchanger, filters and ducts, though.

I'm just talking extractor fans really. The one in the kitchen being above the oven, and the one in the bathroom being to let the moisture out.

I'm assuming these should only be a one way system, but I do know cannabis is quite a strong smell, and wouldn't surprise me if it's strong enough to still come through. I'm unable to smell this in my bedroom or living room where I have windows and no extractor fans.

Comms69

Talk to them.
Ultimately any other action will take a long time and almost certainly ruin neighbour relations.

Jlawson118

Comms69 wrote: »

Talk to them.
Ultimately any other action will take a long time and almost certainly ruin neighbour relations.

Ruining neighbour relations was pretty much the thing I was worried about in the first place