Garden unusable due to neighbours pot smoking

[QuestionableMouse]

This might be a bit of a long one, sorry.

I got a new neighbour a few months ago and knew he had mental health issues when he moved in. He has social workers going in every other day. He's also quite aggressive and I find him very uncomfortable to deal with. (example, one of my towels blew off the line and into his garden which caused a huge row with him being very aggressive, all because I'd nipped in to get it which is pretty normal in my street.)

He's recently started smoking a lot of very strong smelling pot. He has his window and door open and the smell fills my garden. I can't stand it- on my bad days it can easily trigger a severe migraine. I can't hang any washing out, can't sit in the garden and or use it at all. I've even started parking at the back of my property and coming in through the back door because it's so awful.

I don't know what to do. I'm honestly frightened to confront him as I live alone and he's a big man with a bad temper. But I can't go on like I am because I feel like a prisoner in my own home! It's a gorgeous sunny day and I have all my front windows closed so the smell doesn't get it. I'm also not sure if I'm imagining things or if my house in general is starting to stink of it. (victorian terrace)

Any ideas what I can do?

Thank you.

I wasn't suggesting it was a big deal, personally I wouldn't be overly fussed if a neighbour did that, I might think it was a bit of an overstep and possibly avoid them. I was simply suggesting that an inability to admit when one is wrong is why people latch on to small parts of the OP in AIBU.

I do think it's a bit relevant though, not upsetting your neighbours like this tends to mean you are more likely to be able to approach them and speak to them to resolve minor issues.

Sorry, crosspost. Sounds like it was the front garden? In which case I think that's totally fine and he overreacted. The only real solution would be to ask him to move a bit so the smoke goes somewhere else. Sounds like he might not be very receptive to that though. Not sure what else you can do as pp is right, the police won't care

We had this, it rendered the garden unusable (wouldn’t let the kids out in it) and couldn’t open windows. It was so bad the people across the street reported it to the police.

They eventually got kicked out by their landlord.

I own my house so don't want to move. He's a council tenant so I might try them. It honestly doesn't even smell like normal pot. It's so strong.

To clear up the towel thing: I went into his front garden, grabbed the towel and came back out. He wasn't even in and only went mad when another neighbour mentioned it in passing. He came and hammered on my door, swore at me and called me a cunt and a whore. For grabbing a towel from his garden so it didn't get soaked in the rain.

Meanwhile I have to put up with him smoking pot constantly, strangers coming and going at all hours (who he doesn't give a shit if they're in his garden or not) and wonder what is going to set him off next.

I don’t understand your extreme reaction to the smell of pot either, leave him be

i'd have an extreme reaction too its absolutely disgusting and the smell clings. Its revolting and anti social. if you're going to do it, do it in your own house with the windows closed and don't inflict it on everyone else.

Ring the police? Environmental health? Council?

Do it. Every. Single. Time.

I'm amazed at the responses to this thread. If you'd said your neighbour was smoking cigarettes everyone would have told you he was the worst of the worst and deserving of hanging, drawing and quartering.

No, retrieving a towel is much worse than pot smoking. 😂😂🤷‍♀️

We had a neighbour whose teenage son smoked both tobacco and pot in the house and you could smell it through the walls (old house). I can believe it.
I'd go for environmental health first in your shoes.

Social workers go in every other day or so? Any chance you can talk to them about your concerns?

This super skunk that's available now is really horrendous. If people are smoking in the house and have the windows open you can smell it strongly across the road. If someone carrying it in their pocket the smell is very strong. It's not like a little block of resin from the past.

But no, on here if someone's smoking a normal cig people have asthma attacks but someone smoking that stuff then it's live and let live. People are seriously strange

He called you a cunt and a whore?

It would be all our war from me. Police, council, super soaker, hiring someone to rough him up, dog shit through the letter box, loud music, fireworks, bonfires, garden karaoke at 2am. I’d pee on ALL my towels and chuck them over his fence.

I’ll think of some more soon.

I have this problem too, it stinks!! One day I came home parked my car in the car park behind our gardens and you could even smell it there! He opens his windows really wide and lets the smell drift into the garden so some days I can’t sit outside either. I think he owns same as me so have no idea what I can do about it.

Do you hang your washing out the front garden?!

Obviously he shouldn’t have abused you about the towel! I do wonder how normal it is on your street though if someone thought it was worth mentioning to him!

Either way keeping your distance is clearly the right thing to do. I’d second ringing the council.

its the mumsnet "cool wife" thing again, but its extended into "all round cool woman"

being ok with weed smoking doesn't make you cool, it makes you a twat.

Have you spoken to the other side neighbours? People across the road?
I agree the smell is awful and it does travel.

@QuestionableMouse first off you do not just nip in to someone else's garden without consent. That's trespassing and he had every right to be annoyed.

Also, not just people with Mental Health Problems smoke weed. Do not be so ignorant.

If the smell is bothering you, you tell him to smoke inside so no one else has to put up with it, and if he gets arsy just ring the Police.

She didn’t say just people with mental health problems smoke weed.

The police don't have the resources to spend time telling people to stop smoking a bit of weed in their gardens / houses.

I don’t understand your extreme reaction to the smell of pot either

I do. I used to quite like the smell of pot but the shit they smoke these days smells utterly revolting.

I dread spring/summer due to my neighbours pot smoking. Not only can I not hang out washing, I can't even have my kitchen windows/doors open nor the bathroom window or the two bedrooms windows open at the back of house. If I do the whole house stinks.

Everything reeking of pot? I've had neighbours smoke it and the most you get is a faint scent in the air, you make it sound like he's doing it in your bedroom

I was sorry to read the bashing you have had on here OP. If I was in this situation I would phone the council housing department (I.e.his landlord), to report that he knocked at your door and shouted and swore at you. Ask it is logged as an antisocial behaviour incident, and talk to them about the cannabis smoking and you not feeling safe. Ask for the details of who to report future incidents to, and about their procedures in helping him not be antisocial to neighbours. Then phone the local mental health team and ask to speak to his social worker. If you dont know your neighbour's name that's fine, give his address, say you are the neighbour and having problems, they can look up the correct member of staff to speak to. Tell them the problems you are having, say you have reported it to the landlord and ask them what they can do to stop the antisocial behaviour and help your neighbour keep his tenancy.

Maybe it's something like synthetic cannabis. As someone who has both smoked weed and smelt it around - recently, as well - it has never been more than a whiff. Like 'oh yeah, someone's got a spliff' rather than smelling it in washing etc

@QuestionableMouse first off you do not just nip in to someone else's garden without consent. That's trespassing and he had every right to be annoyed

it was his front garden, how could she have got consent without walking into said garden to knock on the door in the first place? do you think he also calls the postman a whore and shouts at him?