Neighbours smoking driving us mad!

[mag2305]

Our neighbours are renting the house next door. We live in an old terraced cottage so our garden is really close to theirs and small too so no real distance between us. It's a young mum and dad plus two little ones under 3. From about 8am to at least 8pm, they come outside to smoke pretty continuously, either together or separately. As the weather is so warm, we like to have windows open but can't because the cigarette smell is coming through all the time. If we sit outside, it's drifting over. I'm pregnant and have a young child so I feel even more aware of it. They're very young parents and I kind of feel for them as they don't appear to work, neither drives and so they're both stuck at home a lot.
But we really want to say something about the smoking but don't know if we have a right to? Or is it going to cause problems? And I do wonder, even if I said, I'm pregnant and have a toddler, could they see the problem anyway as they smoke over their own little ones outside!
Awkward!! Any thoughts?

What @KnottedFern said

@mag2305 I absolutely get where you’re coming from, and YANBU x

We’ve got this too, our neighbours seem to chain smoke, smoke continually drifts over, have had to move washing line to a not so convenient place so we are put out also by their need to smoke, not only that we have to hear the terrible smokers cough one of them has, it’s vile. Not sure what can be done about it though but you have my sympathy 💐

@BlatantlyNameChanged

We have a similar issue with our neighbours and their alcohol - the fumes are drifting over and I am worried about passive drinking - and that's aside from their BO.

@DynamoKev you need to log it with 101. Have you phoned the letting agent and grassed them up? You should probably get your MP on the case too. And have you tried knocking at their door with wine and nice chocs and breezily ordering them to stop fucking existing? Third hand fumes are dangerous, my uncle's cat's friend of a friend once caught a whiff of Martini Bianco across a garden wall and fifty years later dropped down dead. Shocking.

Believe me, I've tried, but for some odd reason no-one takes me seriously.

Maybe somewhere without neighbours would suit you better if their legal activities grate on you so much.

A landlord can stop a tenant from smoking outside (if it's laid out in the lease), so might be worth speaking to the landlord.

Yeah... no. The landlord cannot stop a tenant smoking in the garden no matter what the lease says, it would be an unenforceable clause as it is unreasonable to ban it in an outdoor, non-communal area. They can't even really stop them smoking in the house, truth be told, as they would need to prove the tenant was smoking indoors and "it smells like smoke" wouldn't be enough to convince a judge to issue a possession order.

I can’t be the only one who thought DynamoKev was joking - can I?

I knew.

Martini bianco

Believe me, I've tried, but for some odd reason no-one takes me seriously.

I think your only option at this point is to burn their house down. They'll learn them.

Sadly it’s still legal for them to endanger the health of their children and neighbors this way.

Some outdoor fans may help. If you know the landlord, you might also request they add a no smoking clause to the lease of any subsequent tenants.

*that'll learn them

@mag2305 Are ceiling fans a possibility? We have one in dd2s room and it’s fab. Quiet and effective on lowest setting - can have it on all night in the very hot periods in summer - particularly effective when opening the window does nothing because the air is too warm and still.

Just a thought :)

@Fastforwardtospring thank you. It's really frustrating isn't it. Again I'll probably be accused of being judgemental for saying this, but their younger child has a horrible persistent, asthmatic cough.

@mag2305

Am I allowed to be annoyed about this!!!???? Can't believe how many people think I'm this horrible, judgemental person. You're all perfect of course.

I'm just fed up with it but doesn't sound like there's much we can do.

What were you expecting / hoping people would say?

Genuinely?

You obviously thought there was a way you could control your neighbours behaviour or you think its reasonable for you to demand they smoke up the street away from you / give up entirely.

People have to put up with the habits of their neighbours. Some are less considerate than others. But unless they actively are harassing you or otherwise illegal, getting annoyed isn't going to do you any good. It will just stress you out.

@Amelia666 have you never felt in the slightest bit irritated by neighbours? If not, you're either super laid back or very lucky.

@GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER

I can’t be the only one who thought DynamoKev was joking - can I?

I assumed they were joking.

@RedToothBrush I don’t see why anyone should put up and shut up about a neighbour’s habit that could damage their and their own children’s health?

Blimey, the drinks cabinet’s been opened early today and the crowd’s getting lairy

@RedToothbrush I don't know. I'm just very stressed.

I would get fans at the windows you want open and point them back at their property or upwards.

Put them on as soon as they go outside.

And I am sorry I would be judgemental as well about certain things ( not them I am sure they are lovely) but owning a dog is Expensive and so is smoking . If they have no money coming in I hope they do look after the children. Perhaps they should take the dog out and smoke at the same time , might balance out the risk to their health.

@GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER

I can’t be the only one who thought DynamoKev was joking - can I?

I actually stole the idea from a Viz Comic strip - The Modern Parents.

Nothing you can do and that is as it should be.

As for your faux concern for their child with the asthmatic cough, give over. Even in the vanishingly unlikely event that you succeeded in getting them to stop smoking in their garden, how exactly would that help the child?

They would simply move all of the smoking indoors and then the children would be breathing it in undiluted.

Nobody should try to dictate to anyone what they can or cannot do in their own garden. With the possible exception of loud music etc.

@BlatantlyNameChanged

Believe me, I've tried, but for some odd reason no-one takes me seriously.

I think your only option at this point is to burn their house down. They'll learn them.

Fair enough.

All part of having neighbours unfortunately.

You have my sympathy OP. We lived in a terraced house next to someone who chain smoked all day long whilst I was pregnant and subsequently had a baby. There would have been no point talking to her, as in our experience of her, she would have done it more just to annoy us! There are such worries about second hand smoke but it seems when it comes in your house, you shouldn’t be concerned 🤔. All we could do was keep the windows closed at the back, and open the front windows (downstairs obviously only when we were in the house). It’s horrible to have your home smelling of smoke when you don’t want it to, and you have no choice in the matter.

My neighbour at the end of my garden (both gardens touching) smokes weed in the evenings. The smell would knock you out. But its his garden, his business.

@gamerchick

Ah the annual I'm pregnant smoking thread. Now I know it's summer

Soon to be followed by 'We went to a drinking establishment and sat outside and people were drinking and smoking and we had children around!'

YABVU.