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.

You’ve done the right thing contacting the council. I have the same problem. The police won’t do anything, but the council are responsive. Some great people in the relevant department. Hopefully yours will be useful too.

I don’t doubt a word of what you say about the strength of the smell. Maybe other posters are lucky enough only to get a faint whiff from heavy smokers, but my experience has been that whatever it is my neighbours smoke absolutely stinks - and several gardens over, according to neighbours. And, yes, it can come through the walls strongly too. Victorian semi here. If we don’t close certain doors we can come home to the whole house reeking.

The smell makes me queasy- YANBU!

I had no idea going into someone's garden to grab some laundry is considered such a heinous crime. I guess you learn something new every day.
To the OP, report it. And not just once. Check if other neighbors are bothered and ask them to report it to. We've had a similar situation on our street (minus the towel crime). Took a while, but got eventually sorted.

OP with regards to the towel, I can see POV but it's still trespassing when you have not asked consent to be there, regardless of what you think just because everyone else does it.

I can smell it too in my garden,really strong sometimes.my neighbors are families with young children on both sides.neither of the parents look the type.i worry with having young adults in my house they think it’s us.
Sometimes I worry it could be us .no one is sharing with me if it us 😢

Of course there's nothing wrong with entering a FRONT garden to retrieve an item of property that blows over.

I also struggle with migraines after smoke of any kind, so it would be an issue for me. If the smell is very strong, is it possible he's not just smoking, but growing it as well?

@PlantPotParrot only the postman is doing his job, bit of a difference. It's polite to ask if she could just retrieve her towel instead of just walking in without asking.

Sorry, can’t move past the garden thing. No such thing as “normal in this street” entirely within his rights to be pissed off if some random just wanders in.

Its a front garden. Jesus christ imagine living somewhere you cant retrieve your own item from next doors front garden!

@ParrotWithACarrot Will you be my friend?

Shed have been in the garden longer if shed knocked on the door to ask for thw towel back!

OP. I'm with you all the way. It stinks and is vile and antisocial

Smoking weed makes people anti social, aggressive... sure

OP's neighbour is a nasty cunt without the drugs!

How was she supposed to ask for the towel back, without going up the garden path, and when the neighbour wasn’t home ? If she had knocked on his door to ask, she would have walked past the towel. He wasn’t there, so she would have had to walk past the towel again to get home.
I really don’t believe that anyone on here would not just pick up their towel which had landed just inside the gate. Ruder and ridiculous to knock the door, walking past the towel and disturbing the resident.

As to the dope ? Ugggh. I don’t understand why so many people aren’t bothered. It is illegal, and can be horribly strong with a smell that clings to everything, so everyone coming into your house will have you down as a pothead.
Have a family member with schizophrenia triggered by dope. I think we don’t take it seriously enough.

Honestly the garden thing isn't a huge deal and is accepted as the norm in my street.

It may be normal for you and most of the neighbours, but for someone with MH issues, especially if they include an element of paranoia, that could well be very distressing and frightening.

@IronManisnotDead

it's still trespassing when you have not asked consent to be there, regardless of what you think just because everyone else does it.

Will I get arrested for popping a Christmas card through the neighbours door?

It was the front garden people... she would have to go up the path to get to the front door to ask permission. Move on!
I would ring the council. The police likely won’t care. I can sympathize. One of the major reasons we moved house last year was due to our neighbour constantly smoking cigarettes in his back garden which then drifted into our garden / open kitchen window. So disgusting

Sorry, didn't realise it was the front garden.

Poor you OP.

Sorry you've had a bashing here.

People get fixated on periphery detail on MN, probably just to hack OPs off.

I think starting by ringing around, the HA, environment, police etc might be a good start; then you'll be clearer and can decide what to do.

And virtually no sympathy here either, when you've got some big bloke intimidating you.

Wowsers Op, this sounds really frustrating. I think I'd report to the council if it's council owned? But environmental health or local neighborhood police (they usually have an email address) would be other suitable options.

(I agree that I would expect to pop into someone's front garden to collect something that had blown there, without being subject to verbal abuse.)

I was watching one of those police body cam style programmes last night.

Pair of policemen in a car with windows down in a housing estate and one of them managed using the powers of his nose, having drive past, to pinpoint precisely a house that was being used for growing. The smell was that strong that all it took was driving past. So I can totally believe that the stink from the neighbours house would be fierce. He may not be growing, but modern skunk smells vile. It isn’t like the cannabis of years ago. Called skunk for a reason.

And how the op was supposed to ask permission to retrieve a towel from the mans front garden without walking past the towel to the front door to get it, I don’t know. Semaphore?

@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 else do people knock on his door??

I was just going to ask the same thing - could he be growing it? I regularly cycle home from work and can point out four or five houses on my route where they must be - the smell is eyewateringly strong. I know it's not just someone having a puff in their garden - it's the same houses at wildly different times of day and night.

Recent thread about smoking in your garden: “you’re a disgusting selfish piece of shit who deserves to die a painful death”

Thread now about neighbour smoking powerful skunk: “God, don’t be such a square OP”

Gotta love MN sometimes!