Are my neighbours being UR?

[coffeecoffeecofffee]

Oh man, It's been on going with our neighbours recently and it's driving me crazy!

We're in a block of flats (6 total, one on each floor- they're all 1-2 bed flats).

As we're right at the top we thankfully don't have the loud footsteps/furniture moving issue but our downstairs & second floor neighbours both smoke in their flats (non smoking building) and the smoke rises up to our floor, 3 times now our fire alarm has been set off due to THEIR smoke & we explained to the landlord it wasn't us (which he knew as he's spoken to them about smoking before) but they've muted our smoke alarm (something I think is surely illegal?) as it kept going off so often.

I've now bought one we can control ourselves and turn off if it goes off (the standard ones in all the flats are controlled by a panel on the first floor- you have to go all the way downstairs to turn it off and it's a locked panel so the maintenance people have to do it each time!

Smoking is the main issue, we also have...
-3rd floor play loud music every Saturday night from around 9-2am and it's THE SAME song continuously on a loop (some kind of foreign music).
-Someone or a few flats in the building cook smelly food every day, I'm talking strong onion smells, weird curry sort of smells and it makes me feel so nauseas so we have to open all our windows and put our extractor fan on when they clearly aren't!
-Ground floors kids (they have about 6 we've counted, 4 young and 2 teens) hang out in the stairwells, stinking of BO (I know that sounds mean but it's true!) and playing/talking loudly with all their friends, blocking the front door.
-The smoking, the smoking, the smoking.

We viewed a few new places recently and are hearing back from the estate agents on Friday regarding one we really liked so hopefully we've got it and can move by May 1st, fingers crossed. 😫

Would I be crazy to put a (polite) note downstairs in the communal hall just pointing out its non smoking, affects our fire alarms and makes the building smell of smoke, to please open windows/use extractor fan when cooking & maybe not loiter in the hallways?

If you are planning to move out soon, I wouldn't rock the boat. It could make things worse for you. Just bide your time and breathe a huge sigh of relief when you leave!

@Eliza9917 what was happening was it would rise up the stair way when they would smoke in the halls (no smoke alarms in the actual halls) and I'm assuming come under our door and set our alarm off near the door as nobody else's ever goes off but we went outside when it happened and it stank of smoke in the halls.

How come nobody else's go off? Surely as the smoke rises it would go under their doors first and be barely anything left by the time it gets to you. There would be no smoke left. This is ridiculous. Cigarette smoke doesn't make smoke alarms go off.

OP I'm on your side regarding the cooking smells.
Of course one can cook whatever they like in their own home, but as someone who has lived for years with this, it's maddening. My home absolutely stinks, all my soft furnishings so sofas, bath towels, my bedding let alone my costs hanging in the hallway etc. It's so bad that my father with emphysema cannot visit because the smell was so horrendous he ended up in hospital on a nebuliser once. Admittedly the worst culprit is a professional cook and I'll have the smell for 10 - 14 hours a day, but DH are the minority in this building where these cooking smells are the norm.
Why should my home enjoyment be ruined? All the YABU comments but honestly it's a nasty thing to live with

@Eliza9917 It's what the maintenance people told us? And only our floor ended up smelling of it & we've both never smoked! Unless it's our neighbour one floor below but I'm not aware she smokes?

The maintenance people also switched your fire alarm off so I wouldn't pay much attention to what they say.

@CircleofWillis I'm sure they're not neglected, it's the teen boys that smell of bo and that can be a common puberty issue so that's okay.

They're not English, I think it's common for people in some nations to live in big families together- they always have relatives coming round as well.

We can hear them as it echoes & the stairwell is very narrow so when we try and get out it's a nightmare,

Why would I lie about the time of music- it's a Saturday usually so I accept people like to unwind and party maybe but not with thudding bass music for hours. It affects other neighbours too, not just us!

It's not about the ethnic part of the cooking, it's just that the particular food smells are Indian I'm sure and it's strong & unpleasant tbh. My partner complains and he loves Indian food! (It's banned in our flat though as it makes me so nauseas so he gets to go out for it with his brother often).

We've never called the fire brigade? Just the maintenance people.

We are quiet and mindful, I mentioned potential footsteps and moving furniture as we're looking to move atm and a place we looked at was a lovely basement flat so we would have people above us.

You'd have no reason to be upset with me. I converse & am friendly with all neighbours, I am polite and have never said a word wrong to them (aside from telling the LL about the smoking obvs).

@JacksonvilleJaguars thank you! It's awful and I just think people can't understand unless they've lived with it for a while. You'd think a chef would cook yummy smelling food

When I cook an Italian dish with a lot of onion or garlic our flat never smells

It almost certainly does - your brain starts filtering the smell out.

Try going aout for a half-hour walk after dinner some night - guarantee you will smell garlic when you come back in.

I would kick up a huge fuss about them turning off your smoke alarm. If your LL doesn't properly investigate the smoking then I would take this further - let him know you're prepared to go over his head if it's not resolved.

I would just let the other stuff go. There's no point in complaining about loud kids and cooking smells. It will make you look petty and difficult. I know it's annoying you but you don't want to water down your argument over the smoking and be fobbed off as the misery guts who moans about everything.

I can understand your dislike of the cooking smells, it is truly awful.
I used to do (part-time) a door to door selling job years ago and visited many blocks of flats.
One particular block stank of very stale onions ,curry, whatever, continually, I felt like I wanted to hold my breath when I went in there it was so very strong. I was only visiting but my clothes , hair, etc smelt afterwards.
It was hideous for the other residents, it was from a ground floor flat and the costomer that I had on the third floor told me that they were unable to sell their flat, which they had attempted to do off and on for years since the "smelly cookers" moved in downstairs!
Hope you are able to move somewhere more fragrant OP, its fortunate that you are tenants in this respect.

@bluegreygreen even when we've gone out it doesn't smell actually. Probably helps that we have diffusers and air fresheners.

I also don't cook with onion or garlic a lot anyway.

Why would my brain filter that out and not theirs?

They also start cooking about 11am & it's all day. Every day.

@HazelBite oh no! What a nightmare for those neighbours trying to sell. That's awful. Some people obviously have no care or self awareness I think.

I'm so glad you understand, most people on this thread have just got angry with me for the food smell issues.😂

Are you sure it's not your diffusers setting off the smoke alarms? My old Nest smoke alarm reacted violently to my Muji diffuser.

Maybe your downstairs neighbours are cooking delicious curries to cover up the air freshener pong from upstairs?

@burritofan
"Maybe your downstairs neighbours are cooking delicious curries to cover up the air freshener pong from upstairs?"

Funny.

No it was definitely smoke as it smelt of smoke when they went off.