Neighbour issue

diystarter7

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.

Hi OP
Just as I expected and posted about not noting your comments before as I missed the,

If you are lucky they will move, or you put up with it and possibly worse or you move as I suggested.

"room just plastered" or not, we all like to air our room at times but not with smells we dislike.

I feel for you

Take care.

pinkshoes

Well I suppose you could invest in a huge industrial fan with a motion/IR sensor so when the neighbour goes into the garden for a ciggy, the fan turns on and blasts the air back into her garden in the other direction?

Or you could always go out when she smokes and start giving her smoking facts about the damage it does to her lungs?

Or what about a machine that releases an eggy fart smell every time she lights up?

I sympathise over the smoking, as the smell is awful! But if she is not willing to go to the end of her garden, then all you can do is make the fence higher to try and absorb the smoke particles.

But cooking smells?!? Really?! My next door neighbour at one house in Oxford was Indian and I used to love the cooking smells coming from the house! You can't complain about cooking smells. 

babyblade41

The joys of living in very close proximity to neighbours. I'm an ex smoker & absolutely love the smell of ciggies, but for those that don't it must be horrid...but not a damn thing you can do except mitigate it. 
You have tried a polite word & if that hasn't worked nothing else will.

I never smoked indoors when I was a smoker apart from my early smoking days when I used to have an ashtray whilst I was cooking dinner  in the early 80's and one next to my bed so I could have one just before eights out !!

As you bought up cooking smells then not sure what you expect them to do, Eddie of starvation or just eat salad every day ?? 

I would probably think long term of aiming for detached , this would be very beneficial to the nasal passages unless you live rurally & that brings a whole different level to obnoxious smells .. sometimes the smell of fox poo mixed with badgers can be slightly overwhelming at times 

jrawle

Jude57 said:

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.

Today I had a quick Google before posting and found this government guidance on smoke nuisance:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/nuisance-smoke-how-councils-deal-with-complaints

I do remember a news item in the past about a man who had to stop smoking in his home after the smoke seeped into the neighbouring property and the neighbours complained to environmental health. I can't find it just now, sorry. Most articles at the moment seem to be about neighbours smoking cannabis, with someone fined last year. This was from an environmental health angle, despite the fact that it's illegal in the first place, as the police unfortunately often won't do anything about it. So the same could apply to tobacco smoke.

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/leicester-news/you-can-smell-someone-smoking-5785487

Getting_greyer

You may have bought elsewhere if the neighbour was smoking at the time. Could easily have a new neighbour move next door who is partial to a Cuban. 

jrawle

housebuyer143 said:

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.

I have this issue, but I have made some improvements such a better draughtproofing doors and windows, and now largely eliminated it from getting into the house. It's worth remembering that if you can smell smoke coming in, expensive warm air is also getting out! I have an air purifier if it gets particularity bad. That quickly removes any PM2.5. If the OP or anyone is interested, I recommend the ProBreeze one, which is cheaper than most others but highly effective:
https://probreeze.com/products/air-purifiers/5-in-1-hepa-air-purifier/

The difference between log burners and the OP's problem is that people light their stoves in the winter, when I want my windows closed anyway. In the OP's case, the problem is likely to be worse in the summer when the neighbour may spend longer outdoors smoking.

Jude57

jrawle said:

Jude57 said:

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.

Today I had a quick Google before posting and found this government guidance on smoke nuisance:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/nuisance-smoke-how-councils-deal-with-complaints

I do remember a news item in the past about a man who had to stop smoking in his home after the smoke seeped into the neighbouring property and the neighbours complained to environmental health. I can't find it just now, sorry. Most articles at the moment seem to be about neighbours smoking cannabis, with someone fined last year. This was from an environmental health angle, despite the fact that it's illegal in the first place, as the police unfortunately often won't do anything about it. So the same could apply to tobacco smoke.

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/leicester-news/you-can-smell-someone-smoking-5785487

Your first link doesn't refer to cigarette smoke but to 'smoke' emanating from a building. It refers also to the Environmental Protection Act 1990 which DOES set out the limited types of Statutory nuisance but again doesn't refer to tobacco smoking.

Your second link specifically relates to cannabis smoke but makes no mention of cigarette smoke. Every case I can find is one where it's cannabis, not just tobacco being smoked.

Here's what a local authority page says about cigarette smoke and cooking smells:

https://www.peterborough.gov.uk/business/environmental-health/noise-and-nuisances#:~:text=Smells from cooking at a domestic residence would,can be investigated under the Statutory Nuisance regime.

It's not illegal to smoke in private premises, which includes gardens. The only case I'm aware of relating to the issue of neighbour's smoke finding its way into another residential property was in New York some years ago. 

jrawle

Jude57 said:

Your first link doesn't refer to cigarette smoke but to 'smoke' emanating from a building. It refers also to the Environmental Protection Act 1990 which DOES set out the limited types of Statutory nuisance but again doesn't refer to tobacco smoking.

Your second link specifically relates to cannabis smoke but makes no mention of cigarette smoke. Every case I can find is one where it's cannabis, not just tobacco being smoked.

Here's what a local authority page says about cigarette smoke and cooking smells:

https://www.peterborough.gov.uk/business/environmental-health/noise-and-nuisances#:~:text=Smells from cooking at a domestic residence would,can be investigated under the Statutory Nuisance regime.

It's not illegal to smoke in private premises, which includes gardens. The only case I'm aware of relating to the issue of neighbour's smoke finding its way into another residential property was in New York some years ago. 

Here is an article about a council investigating a complaint about tobacco smoking, which they have a statutory duty to do:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/6244315.stm

As I said in my previous post, there are numerous articles about investigations into cannabis smoking. From an environmental health point of view, this is no different from tobacco smoke. Councils don't have the power to prosecute people for possessing an illegal drug, only to fine people for causing a nuisance.

Anyway, if I were the OP, I'd contact the council's environmental health team for a chat to see whether they can help or offer any advice.

born_again

HampshireH said:

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.

If it's a rented property they may not be able to smoke in the house.

BungalowBel

All I can say is the neighbour surely has a right to smoke a legal substance and cook food  within their own house and garden?