Bear with me on this as I will try and give as much info as possible. My house is detached as is my neighbours, there is a roughly 2m gap between them, the front of my house is approx 3m forward of the entrance to my neighbours house. The entrance to my neighbours house is an area approx 1m x 2m where the upstairs creates a canopy over the front door and kitchen window. This area is used by my neighbours to smoke, someone is there approximately every 20 minutes, ranging between 1 and 3 people usually but as many as 6 on occasions when they have visitors. Directly opposite where they smoke is the flue for my lounge fire. There is no physical separation between the 2 boundaries, purely a line of edging stones between their block paving and our Cotswold gravel. There is a pot just inside their boundary that they place some of the cigarette ends in, the others I have to regularly pick up off my drive and throw back on to theirs. On my outside wall above the area they smoke in but approximately 2m rear of it is my bathroom window. The front of my lounge is a large bay window and above that is my sons bedroom window. The smell of their smoking comes through the flue in to the lounge, we cannot open the bathroom window or vent because of the smell. My sons room is south facing and so requires the vents in his windows to be open and he is always complaining of the smell and we cannot open the lounge windows and vents either.
I am going to speak to them and ask if they would smoke in the back garden, the layout meaning that they could not be any closer than 3m to any windows or vents on my property or the property above them.
Before I do this I want to know where I stand on this legally. Are there any regulations etc that I should be aware of as I am almost certain that the response will end in off!!

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.

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 http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/what-should-i-eat-between-now-and-thursday-to-ensure-my-farts-are-hideous 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). **** disgusting to be woken up at 5am by some **** 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 public nuisance in the same way that smoke from a garden fire or a BBQ is if it’s frequent enough.

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.

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.

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.

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