To report nuisance neighbour

[TerriHatchet]

To her landlord?
Long story short; we had to call the police out one night just before Christmas, after my new upstairs neighbours decided to have a party til 4am. This was after she had been coming home every weekend steaming and making loads of noise in the communal close, making so much noise! My son was 8mo at the time and I was beyond exhausted. Her landlord came to see me and apologise and he said anymore problems to contact him directly and she would be gone.
Well now we have started to notice an immense stench of old cigarette smoke in our kitchen, coming from the flat above . It smells vile and I am done with being nice etc, I just want her gone! I know all the flats in this building are leased as non smoking- wibu to phone her landlord in the morning and tell him?

[ErNope]

YABVU to report her for smoking in her own home.

[AerithEarling]

I think if she has stopped with the partying ect until late hours then just let her be. You could also slip her a note to open her windows whilst smoking.
On another note be thankful she is a private tenant and not a social tenant, because they would jack shit about any noise nuisence and would never be as helpful as the landlord.
Going through my own issues now with a neighbour upstairs from hell

[coolaschmoola]

If you can hear her she can hear your baby. I note you used his age when referring to your level of exhaustion. If he is night waking you can guarantee he can be heard in other flats.

People go out on weekends, people smoke in their OWN homes - equally people have crying children who grow into toddlers who have screaming tantrums, or scream for twenty minutes solid in the middle of the night due to night terrors at four years old (yes dd, I'm talking about you). Some people even have children who wake up early on weekends.

I promise you that if her noise is disturbing you then yours WILL also be impacting her life. I can hear my next door neighbour's children thundering about the house. I can hear their hormonal teenage ranting at their parents. They can hear my dd screeching about bloody Paw Patrol and not wanting ,'CHEESE IN MY SANDWICH!!!' I can also hear their children laughing and they can hear mine. I frequently crap my pants when they put their recycling in their bins late in the evening because they are by an airbrick in my lounge wall. They sometimes have parties, so do we.

Would I report them? No. Noone is silent and living in adjoining properties means that we have to acknowledge that everybody makes noise. To people without children there is little worse than a crying baby in the night, has your neighbour complained about your child disturbing her?

[WriteforFun1]

OP why not have a chat with her about the smell?

Is she still coming home drunk and making a lot of noise? If she is, I'm wondering if she's my old neighbour....!

[Liiinooo]

If it is a non-smoking building and she is smoking inside YANBU. People who smoke have no concept of how pervasive and intrusive it is to non-smokers. Presumably her landlord is going to have to repaint/recarpet the whole flat if she has been smoking so much it is noticeable in neighbouring properties.

I cannot believe that PPs are comparing having a crying baby to smoking. Whilst I can accept they are both annoying I don't think they are comparable in any other way.

[coolaschmoola]

I wasn't comparing it per se - I was saying that if you live in close proximity to other people then both sides will do things that irritate/annoy the other. In one house it was the godawful singing of my neighbour. In another, smoking. The point was we all get irritated by other people. There are better ways to handle it than to report - particularly when there are two sides to every story and no one is silent. The neighbour had A Christmas party - one, and the op reported her. She comes home late on weekends, not exactly a hanging offence. Everything sounds louder at night - I can hear taxis at night when I don't hear a thing in the day, it's life.

Surely the reasonable thing to do would be to talk to the neighbour, both after the party and about the smell of smoke rather than immediately reporting as it tends not to create good relations. I get irritated by the odd party my neighbours have - but I don't say anything because I might one day want a party. I could report them if I wanted to as they rent the house. I wouldn't though, because they are my neighbours and I'd talk to them rather than 'dob them in' to their landlord after one CHRISTMAS party... Tis the season and all?!

[WhereYouLeftIt]

"I know all the flats in this building are leased as non smoking"
And that well might be a condition in the building's insurance. Which would be void should, say, a fire start because of a carelessly-placed cigarette.

A bit of noise I could (and have) put up with, although I think a loud drunk clattering about the close late at night on a regular basis - not so much, that's not unavoidable noise. It would be lovely to be able to talk with neighbours, but not everyone is approachable, we don't know if this neighbour is or is not. And remember, the Christmas party wasn't just reported to the landlord, it was also reported to the police.

OP, can you be sure that the smoke is coming from this upstairs flat and nowhere else? If you can be sure, then yes I would report it to her landlord. I wouldn't want my kitchen to stink of cigarette smoke, it's foul, and in a non-smoking building it should not be happening. If you smoke, you don't move into flat where 'no smoking' is a condition of your lease.

[WreckingBallsInsideMyHead]

Many private rentals are non smoking and if you know the whole building is then yanbu

If a party was bad enough to be reported to the police then yanbu to report to the landlord.

Yes noise and smells are part of living in close proximity to other people but that doesn't mean you should have to put up with anything and everything.

[VodkaValiumLattePlease]

You do realise how long it takes to evict someone? You sure you want to go through that?

[teafortoads]

AerithEarling Social housing shouldn't be crap if you have a neighbour from hell - Can you ask to deal with the head of community housing? I found the minions at the council to be useless but the boss got things sorted pretty quick. Stomp in with all your grievances/evidence and demand to speak to the top lady/chap. Yes i'd complain and get smoking neighbour kicked out OP. Poor flat owner's property will be ruined if she is stinking it out with fags - It'll quite possibly need stripping out once she leaves , at great expense.

[insancerre]

It sounds time that you have just taken a dislike to her
I think if you choose to live in flats then you have to be prepared to have to put up with neighbours
Having a party?
Haven't we all done that?
As a one off I'd let it go
Coming in drunk?
Its hard to be considerate when you are drunk but she's not doing anything that millions of other people arent doing
Smoking ?
Yes she might be breaking her tenancy agreement but you have no proof
You could buy an air freshener

Remember that if you can hear her then she can hear you and your baby and may that you make too much noise too

I actually think its very mean to set out to get someone evicted

[NarpIsNotACunt]

YANBU

She is behaving in an inconsiderate and antisocial way, and against the terms of her lease.

[BitOutOfPractice]

Can't you just ask her to smoke outside instead rather than trying to get her kicked out?

And I don't see much evidence of you being "nice". When have you been nice? I don't understand that bit

And as a PP said, I bet she's been woken by your baby!

[greenfolder]

Yabu. Her tenancy may have no such clause. Your landlord is unlikely to actually evict her for allegedly smoking. Surely he was referring to noise? She may just start smoking outside under your window which would be worse. And finally you have no idea who you will get next. Also, if she does not want to go and he has to evict her I guess you could count on a couple of months of unfettered noise.

[EMS23]

I'm a social housing manager and I spend the majority of my time investigating and working up neighbour noise complaint issues. Please don't think all social landlords won't do anything!

But evicting someone because of it is very very hard and the level of evidence required to pass the tests the courts set out is very high.

[TerriHatchet]

Insanerre she was coming home steaming drunk and loudly every Friday/Saturday and screeching in the hall with her mates, waking me
and my son up every night at about 1am.
And I am actually just awake now because of her 12yo son jumping up and down in his bedroom loudly. So yes I will be calling him today.
Oh and btw all the flats here have the same factor and we have had signs put up saying people are not allowed to smoke in their flats. That is the factors decision so I do know that she is not allowed to smoke in her flat.
The night that I had to call the police they agreed she was bang out of order, she had fallen asleep drunk with her music blaring at 4 am so at 6am after shouting on her to open the door they broke it down. So you can imagine how happy her landlord was that he had to arrange a new door to be fitted, weeks into her tenancy.

[TerriHatchet]

Oh I forgot to add, (and I can't believe I did!) not long after she had moved in the police were called by somebody else after there was a loud argument out in the hall at one of her soirées. So she didn't start out covered in glory when she moved in!

[AerithEarling]

Teafort I tried and they said there is no proof and of course he deny it.
My last hope is the police raiding his house for drugs because I know that is an instant eviction.

[WriteforFun1]

She has a 12 year old son? If he's not full time resident with her, maybe she is my old neighbour. Smokes like a chimney, stomps about in killer heels, noisy when drunk, screeching with mates...are you in a outer zone of London?

I can't believe what some posters think it's okay to put up with just because it's flats.

[MintJulip]

Of course report her.

Even if she is allowed to smoke up there, at least they can look at dong something to stop the smell coming through to your side.

[MintJulip]

The night that I had to call the police they agreed she was bang out of order, she had fallen asleep drunk with her music blaring at 4 am so at 6am after shouting on her to open the door they broke it down

wow, awful behaviour and she can wear ear phones, I am sorry your going through this op, having your home invaded in this way is awful, its supposed to be a safe sanctuary from the world.

[Lillychops]

Hi I've been reading neighbour nuisance posts. My neighbours were having parties every week till 4am for 5 years. Council wrote to them my housing people saw them and its still going on. Rang police twice. You can have them up for harming your health if goes on a lot. If they dont stop after this they fined heavily. Thats my next step. I work and have serious illness. Its making me ill. So dont let them win. You can stop it. Just got to tell them its affecting your health. Think its called statutory nuicanse.

[birdladyfromhomealone]

ZOMBIE THREAD ALERT!!!

[extremelymaturecheese]

I'd complain - I've rented flats that came with the non-smoking clause in my lease and I personally wouldn't have liked having parts of my deposit lifted to replace smoke-damaged carpets etc.

Although full disclosure, for my first flat I ate it because the potheads upstairs were key-happy when it came to their neighbours' cars.

£650 deposit vs potential £1,200 bill for fixing the scratches in my car.

Not helpful, I'm sure but since you're already on their radar another neighbour could complain and you could still be stuck with the blame.

[extremelymaturecheese]

Ouch, it got me!