Kitchen extrator fan - neighbour smelling cooking?

RavingMad

Unless the smells bother you and you want proper ventilation to be expel it from your home, I wouldn't spend any money doing these things.

I did a Google search, as you do, and came across a website forum offering solicitors advice.  One person had the same problems as your neighbour and was told by a solicitor that it was a non starter and that they should try minimising the issues by trying various things such as sealing their own house etc.

This neighbour of yours is a bully if he persists on getting you to spend time and money on his grievances. You should politely tell him to leave you alone.

WIAWSNB

blackstar said:

My neighbour said to me today if it is not fixed ASAP he will take legal action from a solicitor about the cooking smells going into his bedroom. Please don't be concerned by this. It is almost certainly bluff. It will cost him to have letters sent, as I cannot see this being covered by, say, Legal Protection.

He is not being very nice at all about the issue, not in a friendly tone at all. In which case you can tell him this, and how unpleasant, unhelpful and even counter-productive his behaviour is - and he is risking a claim of harrassment if he continues. You can stop him doing this in an instant by simply nonchalantly removing your phone, starting record, holding it up, and asking him to repaeat what he had just said, in the manner he said it. (Only if you are happy to do this!)

I have a tradesman booked tomorrow at 1pm. I ask the neighbour if he can also be home so he can show tradesman where the smells are getting in. He said he will come from his work at 1pm. He said he will not be happy if he doesn't turn up. Tough.

What I will do is
A) plaster and redo the real ceiling and get rid  of false ceiling. Ensuring all holes and gaps are fully sealed. The upper ceiling does look to be in a real state, and is heavily textured! NB - it could well be Artex which 'may' contain asbestos, and this is possibly the reason it was overboarded instead. This is entirely your call, of course, but if you ensure the upper ceiling is fully sealed, then there is no reason why you cannot retain the current panelling solution, and could use this to hide the ducting. Leave your options open, and ask the tradesman what he thinks? If he says he can give you a perfectly flat and sealed ceiling by over-skimming, and you'd prefer that, then fair do's.

B ) get the cooker hood external vented if possible. Really try - for your own benefit - it is far superior

C) also get a 150mm fan on an external wall somewhere in the kitchen.  Given their size to get one with automatic backdraft shutters. That's a good idea, but I think I'd only bother doing this if i couldn't run a duct from the cooker hood. But your call - belt 'n' braces, and all that!

Then there's nothing more than I can do. If he still has a problem and he keeps going on about it I will tell him to get a solicitor to send me letters to stop smells coming into his bedroom. If you do all of the above - and I commend you for doing so - there is nothing else he can rightfully expect from you, so if the smell still persists - and that's unlikely - he'll have to sort it himself from his side.

I have been in touch with the council and they said they can't not help with cooking smells getting into a anither person's house unless it's a commercial property. I understand that is the case, but there may be another angle on this, such as 'statutory nuisance'. If you, for example, drilled holes in your ceiling and this directly caused the smells, I think most reasonable folk would consider you liable for the resulting nuisance to your neighbour. Or if you aimed an extractor vent directly over their patio - that sort of stuff! Not the case here, of course. 

They said they can help with mediation though. I said yes I am happy to go ahead with this and they said they will be in touch as the situation I am finding very uncomfortable and needs mediation. Especially if all this doesn't work. Mediation is always a good step before legal action, and it would be the neighbour who'd be prompted towards this if he's considering legal action. So you only acknowledge that you'd be fully receptive to it, but not the one to instigate it. Mediation is all about trying to arrive at a mutually acceptable compromise, if a full solution cannot be agreed - it has 'give and take'. You can take to the table everything that you have already done - sealed the ceiling, and extraced externally - and that is a full 'give' hand to play. He would be left to acknowledge that he'd have to match this on his side of the house before anything else. 

If it doesn't work the  it must be a issue with the party wall that had major deficiencies. And that would require major renovation to repair. Well in fact it is an issue with the party wall as smoke and odors are not suppose to pass through it. But the solutions that I am making make solve the issue, it's a kind of a easier solution but mit addressing the root cause of a faulty party wall.
Just so others know its not a flat it's a terraced property.
Thanks all so much for all your help.

Bits in bold.

If you are prepared to do this work - and it will benefit you too - then you are doing as much as can rightfully be expected, and the neighbour has to carry the rest.

Please let us know how you get on.

prettyandfluffy

I think that what you're proposing to do goes further than many people would.  Document what you do with dates and costs in case you need to refer to it in the future; if there are further complaints the phrase you need to use is that you have done everything that is reasonably practicable to address the issue.  I think your neighbour is being unreasonable.

WIAWSNB

prettyandfluffy said:

I think that what you're proposing to do goes further than many people would.  Document what you do with dates and costs in case you need to refer to it in the future; if there are further complaints the phrase you need to use is that you have done everything that is reasonably practicable to address the issue.  I think your neighbour is being unreasonable.

Good idea to document, and - yes - the OP would be doing everything reasonably practicable to sort the issue from their side.

However, the suspicion currently has to be that the OP's ceiling has holes in it, which is allowing these cooking smells to pass into the fabric of the building, where it can transverse across to the neighbour's floor. I think there is some responsibility here.