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Original poster

Neighbours biomass smoke is ruining our house (and health of unborn child?)

84 replies

TheCornishGoodLife · 05/04/2025 07:00

We moved house 4 months ago and really stretched ourselves to get it because we loved it so much.
Turns out our neighbours have a biomass boiler that pumps out black smoke across our house and garden every single day from about 4pm-9pm and it’s really getting me down. Now that the weather is warmer, we can’t have any doors or windows open at all, we can’t be out/sit out in the garden during that time because it stinks and hurts your chest, we can’t put any washing out. The smell also seems to seep into the house as well.
The smoke doesn’t affect them because it always blows away from them, right over our house and you get a horrible smoky haze in our garden for hours. It’s like living next to someone that has a big bonfire next to you every single day.
On top of that, I’m quite worried about the health effects of this (plus I’ve just found out I’m pregnant so that’s a double worry).
Ive read up about biomass boilers and used right, they should have a clean burn. So they’re clearly not using it right/burning rubbish to try to save money.
It’s such a shame because this house was supposed to be THE house, and now I’m starting to want to rush to get the redecorating done and move again.
We are super keen to keep good neighbourly relations - is it reasonable for me to say something - have we left it long enough since moving in? Am I being overly sensitive? Is there a gentle way of approaching this?
Thank you so much!!

OP posts:
allthemiddlechildrenoftheworld · 21/04/2025 08:25

@TheCornishGoodLife burning animal carcasses in a biomass boiler requires a special permit. just because he is a farmer does not mean he has or will be granted this permit. notify the council environmental department with details of what is happening.

Floatlikeafeather2 · 21/04/2025 08:23

Do make a complaint (both environmental health and trading standards depts should be interested in this if you go in armed with what you now know) but stop being apologetic about it and do not say anything like "this is supposed to be our forever/dream home", "we came to the countryside to breathe fresh air" etc. If this is a truly rural community, it won't go down well and you might find yourself lumped with the types who want all cockerels silenced and no harvesting to be done at night.

Original poster
TheCornishGoodLife · 21/04/2025 08:22

Growsomeballswoman · 21/04/2025 08:01

You won’t be able to sell the house if you get the council involved. You have to declare any disputes / issues with neighbours

Yes this is the issue unfortunately. And we definitely do want to sell this house in the not too distant future. This is why we never reported our last neighbours either and had to just fence them out instead. We will definitely avoid reporting them because of this, thank you

OP posts:
Original poster
TheCornishGoodLife · 21/04/2025 08:16

BellissimoGecko · 21/04/2025 08:00

I’m sorry you have had such a bad experience with your last neighbours; that will definitely affect how you view disputes now. But I don’t think you have a choice.

agree with a pp’s suggestion of making a FOI request to the council too.

i wonder why he was allowed to put his boiler where it affects his neighbours so much? Does he have planning permission for it? Might be worth looking into that too.

Legally, you are entitled to quiet enjoyment of your garden and house. Good luck.

Show quote history

Thank you, we ended up fencing ourselves in eventually with a wall of 2m fences everywhere! And sadly we’ve heard that they’ve already given the new owners a lot of grief.
We are also really surprised that they had permission to put the boiler and flue where they did. It’s very odd. We will definitely look into this.
Next I think we’ll be looking at the most remote property we can find!

OP posts:
Original poster
TheCornishGoodLife · 21/04/2025 08:11

Men0pauze · 21/04/2025 07:55

Also get to the GP and have your chest checked. It can also be documentation if this does escalate.
But do it more for your own health and the babies

Thank you, you are right. My husband is more of a worry because he’s a firefighter so is already at greater risk of breathing in nasty things anyway. I’ll ask my midwife about it as well in my first appointment next week. Thank you

OP posts:
BellesAndGraces · 21/04/2025 08:10

You have done yourself a disservice by being so meek and apologetic about it, it makes it sound like you think you’re being unreasonable to complain. You need to be firm about this. There’s nothing to lose by being firm as you already seem decided to sell your house again if they don’t stop or descend into being nightmare neighbours.

Needanadultgapyear · 21/04/2025 08:08

TheCornishGoodLife · 21/04/2025 07:34

Bit of an update - we gently broached it but the first conversation didn’t go so well 😢 he kind of dismissed us and then joked about how the smokiness is because of what is being burnt.
He then said that he’s even been chucking his dead lambs in it recently (he’s a farmer and currently lambing) 😮 which I was quite shocked about - I am pretty sure that is illegal and that you have to officially notify authorities of dead livestock and dispose of them properly. So it’s clear he just chucks everything and anything on it. It’s a bit demoralising but we are going to try and plug away and mention it again soon.
We are desperate not to fall out (we moved from our last house due to horrible neighbours). But you move to the countryside for clean, fresh air and to enjoy the outside. Sadly we would have to genuinely consider moving again if they don’t sort this out 😕 we can’t live like this - we can’t have any windows open, sit or just generally be outside from 4pm - 9/10pm everyday, hang washing out etc. The smell also seeps into the house somehow. It’s hard not to feel like ‘why us’. We moved from horrible neighbours and yet again we are being negatively affected 😫

Edited

Legislation requires farmers to dispose of fallen stock correctly and this legislation has banned burning and burial of fallen stock including still births and afterbirth.
This is a trading standards issue and something they are very interested in as often the farmer is non-compliant on other issues they are involved in, but the fallen stock legislation is the easiest one to regulate.

Original poster
TheCornishGoodLife · 21/04/2025 08:07

Meadowfinch · 21/04/2025 07:48

I doubt any farmer would dispose of fallen livestock in that way. There are clear regulations. However, it sounds like he is burning any old rubbish to produce the smoke you describe.

You've tried being nice. I'd report him to the council. I'd also make a freedom of information request to the council, to ask whether there have been any other complaints against him over the same issue in the past 5 years.

This would a) tell you if he's done it before, meaning there is evidence to support your complaint, and b) means you have a claim for costs against the previous owner of your house, if they did not disclose a dispute.

You’d like to think that this would be the case, but he definitely wasn’t joking about burning the carcasses 😕 He said how it’s ridiculously expensive to get them disposed of otherwise, and he always just chucks them in the biomass with everything else. Going by the other things they seem to do, it does match up unfortunately.
He is more of a hobby farmer than a proper farmer - he’s semi retired from a professional career and doesn’t have that many sheep (15/20ish), so I think he gets away with more stuff in a way due to that. She is also very a senior professional so you’d think they would know better!
Thank you though - we will definitely be more assertive with this to try and get it sorted.

OP posts:
Original poster
TheCornishGoodLife · 21/04/2025 08:05

You’d like to think that this would be the case, but he definitely wasn’t joking about burning the carcasses 😕 He said how it’s ridiculously expensive to get them disposed of otherwise, and he always just chucks them in the biomass with everything else. Going by the other things they seem to do, it does match up unfortunately.
He is more of a hobby farmer than a proper farmer - he’s semi retired from a professional career and doesn’t have that many sheep (15/20ish), so I think he gets away with more stuff in a way due to that. She is also very a senior professional so you’d think they would know better!
Thank you though - we will definitely be more assertive with this to try and get it sorted.

OP posts:
Growsomeballswoman · 21/04/2025 08:01

You won’t be able to sell the house if you get the council involved. You have to declare any disputes / issues with neighbours

Odras · 21/04/2025 08:01

I was only thinking from your first message that he was burning something incorrectly in it. Those boilers don’t give off black smoke if they are using the correct fuel.

You’ll have to go in much stronger on this. It’s a genuine health risk.

BellissimoGecko · 21/04/2025 08:00

TheCornishGoodLife · 21/04/2025 07:45

We will try - you are so right. We’re both quite scarred and fatigued from our last neighbours 😅 so we’ve been reluctant to ruffle any feathers, but this is quite extreme and does need to be sorted. It’s making us both extremely anxious. Thank you

Show quote history

I’m sorry you have had such a bad experience with your last neighbours; that will definitely affect how you view disputes now. But I don’t think you have a choice.

agree with a pp’s suggestion of making a FOI request to the council too.

i wonder why he was allowed to put his boiler where it affects his neighbours so much? Does he have planning permission for it? Might be worth looking into that too.

Legally, you are entitled to quiet enjoyment of your garden and house. Good luck.

Greyhound98 · 21/04/2025 07:58

Meadowfinch · 21/04/2025 07:48

I doubt any farmer would dispose of fallen livestock in that way. There are clear regulations. However, it sounds like he is burning any old rubbish to produce the smoke you describe.

You've tried being nice. I'd report him to the council. I'd also make a freedom of information request to the council, to ask whether there have been any other complaints against him over the same issue in the past 5 years.

This would a) tell you if he's done it before, meaning there is evidence to support your complaint, and b) means you have a claim for costs against the previous owner of your house, if they did not disclose a dispute.

You be surprised at the ways some farmers dispose of fallen livestock.
If they’ve got a bonfire going they will Chuck anything on it, carcasses, old tyres and a lot of them think they’re exempt from social norms because they ‘work hard’ and ‘no farms no food’ etc etc.

Men0pauze · 21/04/2025 07:55

Also get to the GP and have your chest checked. It can also be documentation if this does escalate.
But do it more for your own health and the babies

Original poster
TheCornishGoodLife · 21/04/2025 07:55

PragmaticIsh · 21/04/2025 07:45

Did you clearly say that the smoke is affecting you in the garden and also indoors? That it hurts your chest? It does sound as though they either don't understand that, or don't care.

Unfortunately yes, but in hindsight we definitely could have been stronger and less apologetic. Our previous neighbours were very aggressive and intimidating and made our lives hell for 6 years, so we are overly cautious with neighbours now I think. We are conscious that they are lambing and probably exhausted so likely to be less receptive. So we will broach it again next week 🤞

OP posts:
Meadowfinch · 21/04/2025 07:48

I doubt any farmer would dispose of fallen livestock in that way. There are clear regulations. However, it sounds like he is burning any old rubbish to produce the smoke you describe.

You've tried being nice. I'd report him to the council. I'd also make a freedom of information request to the council, to ask whether there have been any other complaints against him over the same issue in the past 5 years.

This would a) tell you if he's done it before, meaning there is evidence to support your complaint, and b) means you have a claim for costs against the previous owner of your house, if they did not disclose a dispute.

PragmaticIsh · 21/04/2025 07:45

Did you clearly say that the smoke is affecting you in the garden and also indoors? That it hurts your chest? It does sound as though they either don't understand that, or don't care.

Original poster
TheCornishGoodLife · 21/04/2025 07:45

BellissimoGecko · 21/04/2025 07:42

You need to get tough, OP. Contact the council and really push for action to be taken. Report them for burning carcasses (WTF?). They sound batshit.

We will try - you are so right. We’re both quite scarred and fatigued from our last neighbours 😅 so we’ve been reluctant to ruffle any feathers, but this is quite extreme and does need to be sorted. It’s making us both extremely anxious. Thank you

OP posts:
Original poster
TheCornishGoodLife · 21/04/2025 07:42

Ineffable23 · 21/04/2025 07:37

Honestly if they're actually burning carcasses then you are never going to get this sorted without reporting them because no one reasonable would do that.

You are right - thank you so much. We started to think ‘are we being unreasonable,’ but that is not normal/reasonabke behaviour from them. Thank you for making us feel validated, I do really appreciate it

OP posts:
BellissimoGecko · 21/04/2025 07:42

You need to get tough, OP. Contact the council and really push for action to be taken. Report them for burning carcasses (WTF?). They sound batshit.

Ineffable23 · 21/04/2025 07:37

Honestly if they're actually burning carcasses then you are never going to get this sorted without reporting them because no one reasonable would do that.

Original poster
TheCornishGoodLife · 21/04/2025 07:34

Bit of an update - we gently broached it but the first conversation didn’t go so well 😢 he kind of dismissed us and then joked about how the smokiness is because of what is being burnt.
He then said that he’s even been chucking his dead lambs in it recently (he’s a farmer and currently lambing) 😮 which I was quite shocked about - I am pretty sure that is illegal and that you have to officially notify authorities of dead livestock and dispose of them properly. So it’s clear he just chucks everything and anything on it. It’s a bit demoralising but we are going to try and plug away and mention it again soon.
We are desperate not to fall out (we moved from our last house due to horrible neighbours). But you move to the countryside for clean, fresh air and to enjoy the outside. Sadly we would have to genuinely consider moving again if they don’t sort this out 😕 we can’t live like this - we can’t have any windows open, sit or just generally be outside from 4pm - 9/10pm everyday, hang washing out etc. The smell also seeps into the house somehow. It’s hard not to feel like ‘why us’. We moved from horrible neighbours and yet again we are being negatively affected 😫

OP posts:
GeorgianaM · 05/04/2025 21:49

'I’m super keen to keep good relations '

They clearly aren't.

I would have knocked their door the first day the smoke came over.

herbalteabag · 05/04/2025 17:58

Ask them to come and see it in your garden and also explain to them that you're pregnant and worried about the smoke and also will want to be in the garden with your baby in the future. Perhaps it needs repairing or servicing?

Happyspendingthedayinthegarden · 05/04/2025 17:43

We often invite neighbours to share BBQ once lit - helps to keeps neighbours happy if they know there's free food & drink. Never any complaints about an invitation.