"Appreciate I sounds massively entitled"
Let's just be completely clear, you don't.
but it’s a pretty repulsive smell IMO.
It is literally a tiny quantity of leaves smouldering for a few minutes.
I accept that not everyone might appreciate it but it's stretching a bit to describe it as a stench and repulsive, we are not talking about burning plastic or boiling cabbage.
If anyone is entitled it is the person who is smoking right next to your window without caring/thinking about it.
What do you actually want them to do? Walk to the end of the road? Stand in the middle of a field?
None of those, just maybe not right next to a neighbours kitchen window. They're probably nice people and have no idea it's an issue and will likely be perfectly reasonable about it if asked.
The OPs neighbour clearly thinks it's a repulsive stench, otherwise they wouldn't be going into the back garden ...
They’re probably nice people and have no idea it’s an issue and will likely be perfectly reasonable about it if asked
Exactly, nobody has ever reacted in an overly selfish manner to a reasonable request 😉
My neighbours used to do this in their garden and it minged me out and upset my (asthmatic) wife.
I waited them out. The bloke now can't leave the house easily due to his COPD and watches tv with an O2 mask on.
That'll learn us non-smokers!
I accept that not everyone might appreciate it but it’s stretching a bit to describe it as a stench and repulsive, we are not talking about burning plastic or boiling cabbage.
I'd take the smell of boiling cabbage over fag smoke any day of the week!
The OPs neighbour clearly thinks it’s a repulsive stench, otherwise they wouldn’t be going into the back garden
Not at all. I blame banning smoking from pubs - going outside for a fag has now become an indispensable part of the smoking ritual.
It certainly makes having a fag far more focused and enjoyable than simply lighting up indoors without giving it a second thought.
Buy a handful of Elf bars in different popular flavours (that you dont object to!) Pop round and tell your neighbour that you have been reading about the dangers of smoking and have been really worrying about them. Hand over the vapes and say that that you have heard that they are a much healthier option and that you think if they use them it might stop you worrying about them. End the conversation with a cheery wave and a smile..... the kindness of strangers.....
I’d take the smell of boiling cabbage over fag smoke any day of the week!
I'd take the smell of burning plastic over it too to be honest.
Our neighbours plus all their friends smoke all sorts from tobacco to the strongest smelly drugs you can buy.
This blows through our windows and is not nice.
we’ve asked them over several years to smoke at the front, but you can imagine the response.
OP I you have better luck than we have.
Honestly, just ask nicely, new neighbours, so just make polite conversation and just raise it, ask if there is another option, if not it's no biggy, but if you don't ask, you don't get. Just keep it civil and lighthearted, if they take the hump then they're probably neighbours who'll keep themselves to themselves anyway.
I used to smoke for years, stopped about 15 years ago, if someone asked me that politely at the time i'd have looked at smoking somewhere else if possible, it's just how you ask, and how they respond.
Get a cat so that it shits in your neighbour's garden?
Ex smoker here.. the smell now really irritates me... Its also significantly worse if its tailor made cigarettes, baccy doesn't seem to be as obnoxious
However.. i don't think you can really say anything, the smell travels a long way, well, you cant say anything until your on real friendly terms with them... Especially when its winter and raining they will be stood at their back door.
The best thing you can do is be selective with what windows you open
Thank god i dont have one of those awful stinking diesel or petrol cars.
Complains about tobacco smoke, but drives a vehicle that pollutes everyone.
.
Dont like the smells coming in your window. ? Then buy air freshener.
Every time you notice the smoke, pop outside and cadge a fag. Explain that you have given up but the smell through your window brings it all back. If you do this regularly, they will soon find somewhere else to smoke.
Commiserations op, that sounds nasty. Most neighbourly stuff like crying kids, shitting cats, yapping dogs, banging music etc I can cope with but this would really do my head in. And I don’t mind the occasional whiff of a cigarette (better than the bloody mushroom clouds of fake strawberry crap from the vape of a grown man who has lost all self respect).
Er. Anyway, yes just ask nicely every so often if they could move away from the door. Expect when it is cold/raining they probably won’t but otherwise surely it’s not the first time someone has asked them to go a bit further away.
Or get an outdoor extractor. Or put in an extremely loud air conditioning unit right next to them. Or get a pregnant lady to parade her bump around the garden and then ask nicely. Or get a shitting cat.
If you can't beat 'em...
"Thank god i dont have one of those awful stinking diesel or petrol cars."
tbf if you sat in a running car with the exhaust pipe right under OP's window ten times a day, you'd be as unreasonable as OP's neighbour
Other than being friendly and politely explaining the issue and provider a mutually satisfactorary alternative, then I don’t think there is much else you can do. As they are new neighbours, if your first interaction with them is asking them not to do something which gives them pleasure is probably not going to go well.
Honestly, they might not even know / realise that it's drifting across. If you do approach them, "I'm not sure if you now but..."
For the record: I’m not a smoker
Then I apologise for the insinuation.
I think a lot of smokers are so desensitised to it that they just don’t realise.
Almost certainly.
As I said before, it's a very pervasive smell. It clings. I had the good fortune to have a bloke sit next to me on the train the other day who absolutely stank.
it’s stretching a bit to describe it as a stench and repulsive
Do you smoke, Ernie?
Complains about tobacco smoke, but drives a vehicle that pollutes everyone.
I don't recall ever walking past someone in Tesco and thinking "christ, he's a diesel driver."
we were trimming back the honeysuckle under our back window to discover our neighbour had been shoving their butts under the fence, it was a large carrier bag full once collected, I knock on the door a presented it to them "think these belong to you". They did the same to the people the other side but managed to set fire to their shed 😕
Do you smoke, Ernie?
Nope. 20 years ago I smoked approximately 35 a day. But since giving I haven't embraced the anti-smoking zeal of many other former smokers.
When you go and have a friendly chat with them you could take them a smoke buddy and ask if they'd mind using it. It's a hand held filter designed to be exhaled through to reduce the smoke and smell. Or if you don't want to talk to them about it perhaps a fan next to the window is preferable to closing it?
Every time they nip out for a fag run out with a fire extinguisher and give ‘em a good blast. Don’t forget to post it on Tick Tock
Thank god i dont have one of those awful stinking diesel or petrol cars
A particularly fine example of “Whataboutery”.
Point them to this thread then they can read up the merits of pros & cons of what others deem acceptable.
Await a barrage of hard boiled eggs through your window
Simples
I'd keep the windows shut anyway - smoking is expensive nowadays, if she smokes as many as you reckon she'll be skinny enough to get through that open window and steal your Toby jugs and horse brasses to help feed her nicotine addiction.
Shit on their lawn, that's my plan for my weed smoking singing neighbours. Just awaiting the nerve to do it.
sirromj
Full Member
Shit on their lawn, that’s my plan for my weed smoking singing neighbours. Just awaiting the nerve to do it.
... And I'm going to be awaiting the news headlines!😉😁
Shit on their lawn, that’s my plan for my weed smoking singing neighbours. Just awaiting the nerve to do it.
Having a crap on someone's lawn is very alpha male. If you are struggling to find the nerve to do it I bet you cover it up before leaving.
Dammit I forgot the winky smiley yet again 😉
Every time she lights up at the back door, ring the front door bell and run away, keep doing it and hopefully you’ll subconsciously train her to smoke out the front instead
No, not really, my advice is pretend you live alongside other people, that they live their lives independently to your requirements will comes as less of shock that way.
I’d like to see your response to a new neighbour playing drum’n’bass until the early hours, lights huge bonfires in the garden or who’s hobby is building racing cars in his back yard and revving the engine repeatedly.
That last one isn’t far fetched, a family moved into the house just opposite about six or seven years ago, and the husband, Dan, builds banger racing cars, and who would literally sit revving the engine for fifteen-twenty minutes at a time. On his front garden facing us. It used to drive Joey nuts.
Get back to us, let us know what your reaction would be…
Dan, builds banger racing cars, and who would literally sit revving the engine for fifteen-twenty minutes at a time. On his front garden facing us. It used to drive Joey nuts.
You probably shouldn't have bought a house on a council estate, tbh, it comes with the territory!
Perhaps you should move to the Costwolds?
They know it annoys you, they've bound to have seen you shut the windows when they have a fag. They either don't give a @@@@ or worse, get pleasure in annoying you.
You can ask them politely but I don't think they'll stop, you could threaten them but you're better than this and also don't want to end up with them calling the police on you or even worse, getting into a scuffle.
Short term plan is to take a gift around and explain nicely about the smoking, but I reckon the only way long term is to befriend them..... Or move.
Goodness me, and I thought cat 💩 in the garden was controversial, it’s got nothing on this.
Dunno about controversial, I just scoop it up with a trowel or bit of wood and lob it back over the fence onto the grass surrounding the flats where the cats come from. Quite why their cats don’t shit on their grass I haven’t worked out so far.
Nope. 20 years ago I smoked approximately 35 a day. But since giving I haven’t embraced the anti-smoking zeal of many other former smokers.
Quite the Saint, ain’t you!
Dress as a giant nicotine patch or packet of nicotine gum and block their door whilst berating them and espousing the evils of big tobacco.
Dress up as the grim reaper and beckon them over..... That'll teach em, or kill em.
I quite like the vape idea, as well as the 'bum' fags off them every time they're out there.
But the winner is........ A giant external industrial fan that is activated by a movement sensor, which blows directly away from the op's window. Subtle it would not be.
