Neighbour issue

Jude57

jrawle said:

OP: a sympathetic reply here. Cigarette smoke is disgusting and there is no reason you should have to tolerate it on your own property. It can constitute a statutory nuisance and councils are obliged to investigate complaints. The process is similar to making a complaint about a neighbour's noise.

As someone suggested, the first approach may have been to ask the neighbour in a friendly way whether she would mind smoking further from your home. However, I fully understand why you may not feel comfortable doing so. Many people resent the smallest complaint, even put most politely, about some aspect of their behaviour. With smoking, the situation is far worse as, after all, it is an addictive drug.

As with noise issues, you should keep a diary of all the times that the smoke has caused you a nuisance, how long it lasted for each time, etc. Do this for a week or two, then contact your council's environmental health department, and see how it goes from there. You can emphasise that you would be happy for the neighbour to smoke further away from the property so that it would not impact on you.

Is it an attached property? Do you think the smoke would enter your property from inside the neighbours house? The question is why she is smoking outside. Could it be a rented property? If so, you could also contact the landlord to complain about the nuisance. Some rental agreements will include a clause about not causing nuisance to the neighbours. You can find the owner's details from the Land Registry website for £3.

I hope you find some of these suggestions helpful, and that it makes you feel better to know someone understands what you are going through. Someone who isn't bothered by cigarette smoke (or noise for that matter) simply could not understand why this is such a big problem for you.

Could you provide a link showing what legislation defines an individual smoking on their own premises or cooking smells from domestic premises as Statutory nuisance? I wouldn't have thought Environmental Health would get involved in something like this, but would be glad to know if there's legislation confirming what you say because it could be useful to other readers.

sevenhills

LifeisYours said:

I have recently purchased a house and a neighbour issue has occurred. Unfortunately, my next door neighbour is a smoker and does it by the back door throughout the day, the smell then lingers into my kitchen, back bedroom and also the bathroom ☹ On top of that I get the cooking smells from the back door on top of the cigarette smoke!

I have to keep the windows and back door closed to stop the odour coming in (dreading the summer).

Are you a vegan? Never heard anyone objecting to cooking smells before, unless it's a business.

diystarter7

sevenhills said:

LifeisYours said:

I have recently purchased a house and a neighbour issue has occurred. Unfortunately, my next door neighbour is a smoker and does it by the back door throughout the day, the smell then lingers into my kitchen, back bedroom and also the bathroom ☹ On top of that I get the cooking smells from the back door on top of the cigarette smoke!

I have to keep the windows and back door closed to stop the odour coming in (dreading the summer).

Are you a vegan? Never heard anyone objecting to cooking smells before, unless it's a business.

Hi

I'm very fussy and Mrs Diy refers to me as a "hypocrite" when t comes t food smells, eG not complain re ones i do not mind and compalin like made ones i don't/

We do not have garlic in the house unless i want want garlic bread - friend onions a non, no unless i have a hotdog

We never do fresh fish cooking that really reaks out anyones house even from 4 doors away.

We have a very powerful extractor and any, all cooking door is closed properly and extractor runs on for a long time after cooking and washing finished.

So we are all different


A house where we lived in years ago, next doors kitchen was on the other wnd of the house to ours but when they did fish, it was windows slammed sut, doors closed etc etc time and freshair
Thanks

mi-key

It sounds more like the OP is one of those people who has a particularly strong sense of smell to be that bothered by the smells. Someone has the right to smoke in their own garden, and to cook food !  

Really if it bothers you that much your only real option is either to keep the back of the house shut, fit extractor fans in the rooms it effects, or to move house.

Jonboy_1984

When we moved into our previous flat my partner smoked on the very sheltered (from prevailing wind and rain) patio, often having a chat with the tenants above who were smoking out their window, everyone happy.

When the above flat sold the new owners were not smokers. If they had knocked on the door and discussed it like adults, my partner would likely have moved slightly further away from the building  and we could have made some sort of arrangement for shelter for her. 

Instead they took straight to slamming the windows, discussing very loudly how smokers should die a slow painful death without ANY NHS healthcare and making calls on speaker phone as to how that selfish #£&*()g &*£/* was doing it again…so she stayed put….

theoretica

You might also like to try some of the odour neutralisers - baking soda and lemon juice, or whatever looks nicest to you.

LifeisYours

Thank you all for your feedback regarding my issue.

Regarding some of the cooking comments I have never experienced the cooking coming through the back door before. These days people usually have extractor fans so I wasn't expecting this and it took me by surprise.

I can't tolerate the smell of cigarettes and to be inhaling passing smoke coming into the house is not what I want. If I knew this was going to be the case I would have not purchased the house and it would saved the aggro. It would be nice to open the windows to air the rooms out as the back bedroom and bathroom have been recently plastered.

I have tried discussing the issue in a friendly way to find a resolution however she didn't want to know.

diystarter7

Jonboy_1984 said:

When we moved into our previous flat my partner smoked on the very sheltered (from prevailing wind and rain) patio, often having a chat with the tenants above who were smoking out their window, everyone happy.

When the above flat sold the new owners were not smokers. If they had knocked on the door and discussed it like adults, my partner would likely have moved slightly further away from the building  and we could have made some sort of arrangement for shelter for her. 

Instead they took straight to slamming the windows, discussing very loudly how smokers should die a slow painful death without ANY NHS healthcare and making calls on speaker phone as to how that selfish #£&*()g &*£/* was doing it again…so she stayed put….

Hi

Flats/apartments, shelter places in blocks - I know someone in a sheltered scheme and hardly anyone comes but one of the T's there is a chain smoker and does not open their windows or goes out for a smoke and walking near, living nest door is horrible and people have moved out because of that person. Credit to the smoker I'm advised the has tried to stop but can't.. Not sure why he does not open windows etc but i guess it could be those above  and sides to him complaining.

IMO, most smokers will take offence if they are told to move further on their own property.

I hate smells so  much I wish I did not and even driving behind a car in summer that has their windows open and smoking in stactic and or slow-moving traffic the smell gets to me and i keep a bigger gap even though my car is supposed to have all of those filters for clean air etc.

Thanks

housebuyer143

LifeisYours said:

Thank you all for your feedback regarding my issue.

Regarding some of the cooking comments I have never experienced the cooking coming through the back door before. These days people usually have extractor fans so I wasn't expecting this and it took me by surprise.

I can't tolerate the smell of cigarettes and to be inhaling passing smoke coming into the house is not what I want. If I knew this was going to be the case I would have not purchased the house and it would saved the aggro. It would be nice to open the windows to air the rooms out as the back bedroom and bathroom have been recently plastered.

I have tried discussing the issue in a friendly way to find a resolution however she didn't want to know.

.

I despise the smell of smoke and this year my neighbour has a log burner... It reeks of smoke esp on very cold days, if I go outside my hair comes back in stinking like I have been in a nightclub pre smoking ban. 
It's annoying but I would never dream of asking the neighbour to stop using the log burner. I just shut my window and try to ingore the gross smell lingering in my hair from my lovely walk in the "fresh air".

Cooking smells is one that you need to ignore. People need to cook and it goes without saying they will be venting then outside one way or another. 

If you go to environmental health you can expect relations to sour more than they have, so I wouldn't recommend it. I imagine they can do a lot worse than quietly smoking out the back in the garden.

HampshireH

I really cannot see how this will be resolved. As you say the neighbour is entitled to smoke by their back door.

This is the risk you run of buying an attached house and not a detached property with space round it.


The seller probably didn't have any neighbour issues. It probably never bothered them to become one.