To complain to neighbours smoking in the garden?

[Quickncjust4this]

Our neighbours have recently installed a canvas covered parabola thing in their garden, with one side (the side pointing towards our garden) left open.

They are now using this as an all seasons smoking shelter. Many times through the day and most evenings they are sat out there puffing away.

The problem is it is completely stinking out my house. The whole of our top floor now stinks of smoke. I've shut the windows be it is still coming in through the vents. I've bought new air fresheners which help but it's still awful.

As non smokers it's really unbearable for us I'm also worried about young children and the health effect to them.

Would I be unreasonable to ask them to stop, or at least to add a 4th panel to their shelter to reduce what reaches our home?

With respect, it was you OP that tried to "make people feel small" by immediately mentioning your masters & PhD. If you use your education as a way of shutting people up, you can't expect them not to comment on you bad English and lack of proof reading before posting.

Back on subject, if you feel so bad about this smoke, I would have a chat with your neighbours. However, you may find that there are things your family do which annoy them.

I think people who smoke in gardens are very very selfish and totally lacking in consideration for anyone except themselves. If they bothered to think for even one second they would realise that their disgusting smoke is being breathed in by others. And yes, if houses are small and close together, your house will end up stinking of smoke. And don't forget that the smokers will also be coughing as well so easy to be coughed over if you are in the wrong place wrong time.

So where are they supposed to smoke then?

@Aridane

Nowhere! They should stop smoking all together. Terrible revolting habit

With respect, it was you OP that tried to "make people feel small" by immediately mentioning your masters & PhD. If you use your education as a way of shutting people up, you can't expect them not to comment on you bad English and lack of proof reading before posting

Don’t think so, it was the poster who claimed smoke couldn’t rise up and enter the vents who was in the wrong. I imagine anyone who’s ever lit/seen a fire knows that smoke (hot air) rises.

Please at least read the OP’s posts. The issue is resolved.

You have my sympathy - we used to have really heavy smokers living next door from us and they used to do the same. The pandemic will have made such things worse, meeting friends and family outside. Difficult to actually tackle though. For those interested in the physics - I redecorated our front porch after they moved out - when I cleared out the top of built in coat/shoe cupboard (used for storage) I discovered everything was brown, sticky stinking from the nicotine... just from a teeny gap at the top between the two porches...

[quote OverTheRainbow88]@Aridane

Nowhere! They should stop smoking all together. Terrible revolting habit[/quote]
Shame it’s legal and generates shedloads of tax, isn’t it?

A 30g packet of tobacco which costs £12.15 nets the government £10.03 in tax. 20 cigarettes are around £13 and £9.50 of that goes in tax. It's generally estimated that it costs less than half the money raised in tobacco taxes to treat smoking related illnesses on the NHS, and you have the added bonus of us dying younger and not claiming state pension and needing health and social care for years on end. So yes, all of us should stop smoking, it is extremely clear- but I wonder what they will tax instead to make up the shortfall when we have done so?

I’m glad you got it sorted but my god you are brave posting on here. You are ripped apart for anything, I find it entertaining though. If it was me I would politely ask them to turn it a bit. I get nothing but weed wafting in where I live though 😑

[quote OverTheRainbow88]@Aridane

Nowhere! They should stop smoking all together. Terrible revolting habit[/quote]
Now you are being unreasonable !

I always thought a pergoda was pergola was a arch frame that you grow flowers around

@unmarkedbythat

A 30g packet of tobacco which costs £12.15 nets the government £10.03 in tax. 20 cigarettes are around £13 and £9.50 of that goes in tax. It's generally estimated that it costs less than half the money raised in tobacco taxes to treat smoking related illnesses on the NHS, and you have the added bonus of us dying younger and not claiming state pension and needing health and social care for years on end. So yes, all of us should stop smoking, it is extremely clear- but I wonder what they will tax instead to make up the shortfall when we have done so?

It's many years since I smoked and I had no idea the price had gone up so much. I'm shocked!

I’ve got this problem with neighbours both sides smoking in their gardens. Have to shut all the windows at back if house, our living room and bedrooms at the back. Biggest issue with it is that I have severe asthma as well as it stinking the place out. So to those saying it’s not a problem it is when a person has to use their inhalers more and everyday going upstairs to shut windows so rooms don’t stink. They don’t do it inside their own houses do they, because they don’t want their houses smelling.

@jessstan1 I've only smoked baccy for years so when I went to the shops lately to get 20 cigs for a colleague and the lady asked me for £13 I nearly fell over. And you can't buy packets of 10 any more!

For the time it’s taken to even write the thread you could’ve written a lovely note to them asking them if you could have a kind word over the fence tomorrow (depending on your tier obvs)

Please don’t get anxious over it, your kids are more important than your neighbours feeling a little bit put out (and as a smoker in my garden in my parabola I can tell you id 100% not mind shifting things around so that you didn’t suffer) good luck!

[quote unmarkedbythat]@jessstan1 I've only smoked baccy for years so when I went to the shops lately to get 20 cigs for a colleague and the lady asked me for £13 I nearly fell over. And you can't buy packets of 10 any more![/quote]
I know that, it's weird people can't buy ten. Years ago I used to roll my own as did somebody else in my department. A man would come around once a month selling it cheaper than in shops, he went abroad and brought loads back duty free. I was quite happy to avoid paying tax to the government. However, even at full price, it wasn't so expensive.

I gave up years ago and am glad but other people smoking doesn't bother me. I'd resent paying all that for it now too.

Don’t think so, it was the poster who claimed smoke couldn’t rise up and enter the vents who was in the wrong. I imagine anyone who’s ever lit/seen a fire knows that smoke (hot air) rises.

@Shizzlestix that was me, and that wasn't exactly what I said. I was questioning how smoke was coming from a garden at ground level, rising to the first floor vents, going through those vents and, to quote the OP, "filling" her house(?)/room(?) with smoke. Smoke dissipates and whilst on occasion I can smell a bonfire indoors with windows shut, that's a hell of a lot more smoke that a cigarette or two produces.

I don't mind that the OP chose to refute my genuine question on smoke dissipating by mentioning her PhD. Good on her.

Our neighbours do this. their outside table is right beside our fence.
In summer, our kids bedroom windows have to be kept shut to keep the cheap polish baccy smell out! They smoke a lot, so we open the front windows wide.
It is frustrating, but its their garden and they're outside so what can you do? we leave our back door open and the smell wafts through every hour. As ex smokers, its pretty foul.
Its the old vase they use as an ashtray and never empty that catches fire daily that I have words about!!

You can’t dictate what other people do in their own homes.

They can smoke outside, and it won't make much difference if they alter there garden covering openings if your are so averse to fag smoke. Ciggie smoke blows away and disperses usually. It does not hang around like bonfire smoke.

You can’t dictate what other people do in their own homes.

And nor has she. She asked politely if they would change round the flap of the gazebo which they did.

Chuck a bucket of water over them whilst smoking then say 'Good morning' and walk back in your house. That'll learn 'em! Lol no, you already know what to do and I think you are just looking for back up here. And you have it. Just ask them nicely about making a few adjustments to the pergola thing and see what happens. If they don't then buy guns and ammo and escalate it to WWIII.

Hahaha user that did make me chuckle! I wonder if I could put the sprinkler on full power (sending a spray of water over the fence) under my right to do what I like in my garden??
Just kidding of course, it's all been sorted with no fuss

You can’t dictate what other people do in their own homes

I think the issue is that their not doing this in their homes they are going outside to do it so their homes don’t stink. My mum smoked all her life initially sitting in the living room so my dad bought a pipe to show her what it was like in the house. So my mother would smoke then in the kitchen with the back door open and adjoining room to us closed. If any family/visitors came she would then go into the garden and shut the back door. The smokers we are talking about are the ones who go out into the garden every time they smoke shutting their back doors so their homes don’t stink and going in their gardens. They don’t want it themselves and don’t give a shit about other people receiving it. It wouldn’t be so bad if they were smoking inside their homes and when they are out in their gardens then smoking. But it’s every time they want to do it, in my case going to their gardens, shutting their windows then having a fag over their fence affecting others. I’ve got no problem with people smoking but why don’t you do it in your living rooms, because you don’t want it lingering in your home

Our new neighbours frequently sit out the front of their house and smoke joints. It comes through our CLOSED windows, I could get quiet high if I'm lying in in bed watching TV while its happening. I'm hoping inclement weather will stop this otherwise I will pluck up the courage to ask them to sit on the wall at the front of their garden rather than pretty much directly under our window.