What do I do about weed smoking neighbours stinking out my flat?

[AngeloMysterioso]

I live in a top floor flat with entirely south facing floor to ceiling windows, and the roof of the building is black so when the sun shines for more than 5 minutes or the mercury rises above tepid outside the place turns into an oven. That's problem one.

My neighbours downstairs are fond of a spliff or two (masterful understatement) and they smoke out on their balcony, presumably so the smoke and smell doesn't go inside their flat. Which is fine for them except it comes straight in through our windows and balcony door if we have them open at all. That's problem two.

This evening I went out for dinner and left the windows and balcony door open hoping the flat would cool down a bit whilst I was out, as it was absolutely swelteringly hot. I got in just shy of two hours ago, and the whole flat stinks of weed. It's like it's been fucking hotboxed. There was nothing I could do except turn the fan on and point it out of the door but I'd only turned it back off a little while before the fuckers downstairs lit up again and hey presto, back in it comes! My DH have gone downstairs and spoken to them about it before but they just don't fucking care.

It's actually making me feel quite sick. To make matters worse they have a baby downstairs.

What can I do? Please don't just say "move". It really isn't that easy.

There has definitely been a change in policy from police towards weed smokers in recent years. We had a few weed smokers in my building who smoke strong strains chronically. 10 years ago the police did nothing and ignore it. This year two out of three have been evicted and the third now leaves the building entirely.

Also, OP if the tenant threatened your DH with a hammer I think the police are likely to take it more seriously.

I feel like you likely live where I have a London flat - zone 4 too .

Our block has police assigned and an antisocial behavior number as does every other block of flats so you need to report this . If you can smell weed is classed as anti social behavior and that’s before you get to threats.

If they rent they are breaking the conditions of lease and if they own a flat is 99% going to be leasehold and then they are again breaking terms of the lease .

Pm me where you are 😂

Tricky, as they don't sound like they give a shit that it's bothering you. If they were even a little bit sorry you could ask that they alert you somehow before they light up so you can shut the windows, or use a fan to blow it away from the building.

I know you and your DH are pissed off, but I'd try and appeal to their better nature, too. Shouting and making threats on both sides isn't going to get you anywhere.

Catsandkids78 I'm in E4 in north east London. My building and the one next to it are mainly owned by a HA, some of the flats are part-owned by tenants (like mine) and some are social housing. I think all the flats in my building are part-owned, but they're definitely violating the tenancy agreement.

One thing I thought of is that every time we smell it we just go outside and pour water over our balcony (the floor not just over the sides), which will drip through and onto them and make them go indoors.

To be honest I wouldn't be surprised if they're deliberately trying to get their baby a bit stoned- poor kid's probably boiling hot, they never seem to go out during the day. It's screaming its lungs out right now.

Ah no I’m Se ! But sounds very very similar - I would call social services , the council , HA etc .

Omg yes that is a great plan - say sorry just watering the plants

You can legitimately call the cops; it’s a safeguarding issue with the poor baby there and he committed a public order offence by threading your DH with violence, presumably in a communal hallway, which DOES make it an offence.

Tbh, I'd buy an AC unit to deal with the heat and leave them to it.

Or you could try reporting them to the HA for drug use, causing a nuisance with the smoke and threatening your DH. Some of the council's housing officers would treat that as anti-social behaviour and at the very least write to them telling them to pack it in.

I lived in a semi detached for years with no problems. Then the neighbours sold to a landlord and a family with 4 kids and a big weed habit moved in. After a few months it was clear they also dealt. And grew.

Here is what i learned. The police are not interested unless it's large scale. Social services are not interested, even when you've seen the neighbours 2 year old wandering around on the patio while her dad bags it all up.

My last straw was when our lights kept blowing and when we went up to the loft we were blown away by the stink and hum of lights. At that point we basically threatened their landlord and that helped.

I also covered all air bricks, and resealed all the skirting and coving on the shared wall. I clingfilmed and heat sealed the loft and the air bricks on the shared walls.

The only thing that really stopped it was the fact that the couple broke up and separated, and moved.

Well about an hour ago we had to give up and flee to my IL's house (they only live 1.5 miles away and they're away at BILs for the weekend). It was still 31° and we were having to shut all the windows/balcony door because the smell of weed was starting to creep in. I had our fan pointing out of the balcony door but it wasn't really doing anything except making noise. It's really starting to get to us both.

Since your DH tried to talk to them about it and instead of them apologising and promising to smoke inside their flat from now on as if they like to smoke than the smell shouldn't bother them! they threatened your DH with violence I'd call the police over the threating behaviour you'll have more chance of them taking it serouisly also get in touch with the HA as they are probably more likely to investigate it than the police will.

I don't mind weed smokers but they should be mindful of others and generally smoke indoors as not everybody appreciates the smell.

You have my sympathy as in this heat the smell of weed must be unbearable.

I would contact the HA and LA on Monday. Speak to the council tax dept and put in a claim for a rate free period as your property is uninhabitable due to tenants smoking weed. Get a doctor's letter if you can. Also contact your local MP's office as their ability to contact the right person on your behalf can be invaluable.

I would also an A.C. unit as suggested.

I used to live in a terraced house in SE London. The neighbours were lovely but smoked weed every night and the smell used to come through the extractor fan. You would open the window and it came in through that. Once we were away for a week and came back and the house absolutely reeked of weed!

Gosh I’m so sorry OP. I’d do the same, I’d have to leave.

I know people have said the police won’t do anything but they did with our neighbours, it’s worth a shot.

Well, DH and I have had to bed down in the living room today as the bedroom is so hot and guess what? We've just had to shut all the windows/balcony door because the fuckers downstairs have lit up again. It's already got warmer in here in the last half an hour.

This is happening every night. I just can't believe there's literally nothing we can do it about it. They sit downstairs in their nice cool flat with all their windows open smoking as much weed as they like, whilst up here it's 31° in our flat right now and we're forced to either sit here sweating or open the windows and have a cool room that stinks of weed.

I'm so hot, pissed off and frustrated I could cry. How is this ok?? How???

It isn’t ok at all :( just going to take some effort on your side to get it sorted which I know is annoying

Could you clean your balcony at an appropriate time...

I do feel for you OP, but there's a lot more you could do to try and stop the issue. You know there's illegal activity going on, your DH has been threatened, but you haven't even tried speaking to the police. You know there's a child who seems to be at risk, but you haven't got tried speaking to SS.

Like the old cliché, you've done the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

You need to escalate if you want something different to happen.

Sonders

We called the police on Friday after the hammer threat- they were supposed to come and see us at 8am yesterday but rang at 8:15 to let us know they weren't coming, so DH is going up to the station in person after work today to speak to them. As far as the HA goes, they directed us to their website to fill in a form reporting anti social behaviour.

I don't expect anything to come from either to be honest.

Is there anyway you can move away? It sounds like it's having a big impact on your life.

So sorry you’re going through this OP
We had a similar situation when I was pregnant with DS, only I had hyperemesis gravidarum at the time and weed was a huge trigger so they were making me physically and violently sick
I filled in so many forms with the housing as we both rented (never went any further) contacted the police (who came out once and told us they couldn’t smell anything that day-ugh!) and in the end I contacted SS as they had a young baby and every time they smoked they had horrific arguments and fights. I’m not sure what happened SS wise, but not long after they had another baby and moved out.
Hope something gets sorted for you soon

ilovepaperchase we've set the ball rolling with that- it's complicated as we're in shared ownership but DH will be speaking to a mortgage advisor later this week and hoping to have the flat valued towards the end of the month, after we've had time to make a few repairs etc. We didn't want to do it so soon as I'm currently on a temporary contract which means we'll only be able to use DHs salary, so we'll probably end up in another flat when we were really hoping to get a house, but we just can't bear this much longer. We're constantly miserable in our own home.

contact the landlord/HA. If the latter it is unlikely anything will happen, but a private landlord may want to get rid of druggies before the dealing starts.

it takes months to evict - in London nearly a year - so even if the LL does want to get rid of them, be patient. Crime and filth do not mean tenants get evicted sooner; landlords use the sec 21 'no fault' because the tenancy breach sec 8 is so easily defended, so there's no quick route. (Corbyn and all the other politicians don't get this)