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AIBU?

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Original poster

To complain to neighbours smoking in the garden?

235 replies

Quickncjust4this · 24/10/2020 15:39

Our neighbours have recently installed a canvas covered parabola thing in their garden, with one side (the side pointing towards our garden) left open.

They are now using this as an all seasons smoking shelter. Many times through the day and most evenings they are sat out there puffing away.

The problem is it is completely stinking out my house. The whole of our top floor now stinks of smoke. I've shut the windows be it is still coming in through the vents. I've bought new air fresheners which help but it's still awful.

As non smokers it's really unbearable for us I'm also worried about young children and the health effect to them.

Would I be unreasonable to ask them to stop, or at least to add a 4th panel to their shelter to reduce what reaches our home?

OP posts:
ballsdeep · 24/10/2020 20:09

@Quickncjust4this

Sparkl fairy as someone with a master's degree in physics and a PhD in a related field, I can tell you it does not defy the rules of physics. What a silly comment.
And you still can't spell definitely
IceniWarrior · 24/10/2020 20:05

Can't believe people are foolish and selfish enough to still smoke.

Happylittlethoughts · 24/10/2020 20:05

Sparkl fairy as someone with a master's degree in physics and a PhD in a related field, I can tell you it does not defy the rules of physics. What a silly comment.

I know you have a PhD but do you mean a pergola instead of a parabola?
And "definitely "... just do you know for your next PHD

SomewhereEast · 24/10/2020 19:57

@OverTheRainbow88

Oh give over. They're not "breathing in smoke". I grew up in a household where the adults smoked so heavily that the you could barely see the hand in front of your face in the kitchen of an evening and the 'white' walls were actually yellow. THAT'S breathing in smoke Grin. I would actually have a sliver of sympathy for the OP if her language wasn't so hyperbolic - I mean living in a war zone is "really unbearable", not smelling some smoke

OverTheRainbow88 · 24/10/2020 19:52

@SomewhereEast

What’s wrong with living a sheltered life and not wanting children to breathe in smoke?

Can’t see how any one is having a go at OP
For not wanting to smell a ming dirty smell and inhale cancerous second hand smoke. Should be outlawed!

SomewhereEast · 24/10/2020 19:50

As non smokers it's really unbearable for us I'm also worried about young children and the health effect to them

If that's your definition of "unbearable" you've lived a very sheltered life. And I highly doubt that people smoking occasionally several metres away in the open air poses any risk to your children whatsoever unless they're offering your PFBs a drag through the fence

isadoradancing123 · 24/10/2020 19:45

Regardless of your boasting about your degree you sound like a pain in the arse. They are smoking, not murdering someone

OverTheRainbow88 · 24/10/2020 19:30

I would politely raise it with my neighbours. The smell of cigarettes is revolting and I can’t believe it’s still legal to smoke. Should be made illegal. Second hand smoke is unhealthy and I wouldn’t want it in my bedroom or my kids.

Hopefully they will move their smoking pad!! 🤞🏽 You’ve got my sympathy.

Lolwhat · 24/10/2020 19:02

You can’t complain about someone smoking in their own garden, it’s disgusting to have the smell in your house but nothing you can really do, I wouldn’t want to run the risk of a massive feud between my neighbours

keeprocking · 24/10/2020 18:59

@BoulangerieBabs

What's a parabola?
y = x^2, it's also the path followed when a ball is thrown into the air and comes down further away! Maybe it should have been pagoda, although that wouldn't fit the description either!
Aridane · 24/10/2020 18:57

But if it had a 4th side, then wouldn’t it be ‘indoors’ and you couldn’t mix with other households in it for a good old smile and natter? (

Aridane · 24/10/2020 18:55

@TheQueef - but did he have a post coital smoke?

Lulooo · 24/10/2020 18:54

Sometimes, mumsnet amazes me. To get in a strop about OP not answering your question when she's already addressed it to another user. To make such a such about whether it's called a pergola, gazebo or whatnot and unnecessary comments about her degree.... what a load of bellends.

OP, as a non smoker it would be irksome for me too. I agree with those who say mention it to them politely with a suggestion about a 4th side. And ignore the pedantics of the thread.

InFiveMins · 24/10/2020 18:43

YABU. They can smoke outdoors. If you are upset by it that much, move.

Frankola · 24/10/2020 18:36

If you want them to change the panel positions on the pergola that's fine but if you're expecting them to fork out for extra panels at a cost to themselves youre heading for trouble

Bluntness100 · 24/10/2020 18:27

Is it only me who had to google parabola..? 😂

Op, all you can do is ask. However they are within their rights to say no.

HauntedPencil · 24/10/2020 18:23

I don't see the harm in asking would they mind rotating or repositioning it with their garden as it's funnelling smoke into your house.

Theluggage15 · 24/10/2020 18:20

Well, you’ll just have to bite the bullet and hope that they’re reasonable people. Good luck!

mumwon · 24/10/2020 18:14

forget the discussion lets talk about compost!

LakieLady · 24/10/2020 18:10

@Aridane

The stable lads from the nearby racing yard let their horses shit in the street, right outside my house, and they don't even bother to pick up after them and put it in a poo bin. wink

Careful

There was a thread where everyone - other than the lambasted OP - thought horse shit was awesome, it didn’t need picking up and anyone who didn’t want to roll in it had a gene missing

Lol, I don't mind at all. If I see them before all the shit gets squished by cars, I pop out with a trowel and a bucket, pick it up, and put it in the compost.

My compost has been fantastic for the last few years.

Aridane · 24/10/2020 18:06

I much prefer parabola

To complain to neighbours smoking in the garden?
UnaCorda · 24/10/2020 18:05

Devilishly that's a ridulous comment to make isn't it?! Countryside smells are to be expected, can't be avoided and won't do you any harm.

Presumably your PhD wasn't related to the appreciation of mildly humorous remarks.

Aridane · 24/10/2020 18:05

The stable lads from the nearby racing yard let their horses shit in the street, right outside my house, and they don't even bother to pick up after them and put it in a poo bin. wink

Careful

There was a thread where everyone - other than the lambasted OP - thought horse shit was awesome, it didn’t need picking up and anyone who didn’t want to roll in it had a gene missing

Classicbrunette · 24/10/2020 17:55

Well I’ve learnt some new words today. It’s been enlightening 🤣

I Went round with booze and chocs and asked my neighbour to move her enormous extremely loud wind chimes away from my bedroom window. She did. But she then put them back up in the same place a month later !

I hate smoke too. My new neighbour smokes under my window and it floats up to my first floor flat. I’m glad it’s winter, so she’ll stop.

I guess you‘ll have to ask neighbour politely to move further away with her gazebo and hope she complies.