Would this put you off buying a house? (And what can I do about it)

[Cucucachu]

We are trying to sell our house. I think it has a lot going for it, we’ve worked really hard on it and it’s marketed as “immaculately presented”. There’s new extension, new boiler, new bathroom, new kitchen, in a desirable location. End of terrace.

Our neighbour is nice enough but smokes weed pretty constantly. Its stinks. He smokes mostly on his terrace behind so if any of the back windows are open, or being in the garden/on the street you can smell it a lot of the time.

if you came to a viewing and the neighbour was obviously smoking weed would it put you off in this case?

and WIBU for us to give him a heads up about when viewings are , maybe ask if he would mind not smoking it outside during that time?

he is generally very nice and we have no issues apart from this - I don’t want to piss him off by insinuating he stinks and might hold us back selling our house

It would absolutely put me off. If I can smell it I’m breathing it, and if I’m breathing it, so are my kids. It angers me when I can smell it walking past people in public for that very reason so why you’re willing to put up with that it in your own home is beyond me, but I certainly wouldn’t.

If he's a friendly bloke then I'd go and talk to him honestly. Can he smoke down the garden or vape which is less stinky. I don't mind weed smoking but it does stink and it would put me off buying if I could smell it in/around the house.

A no from me too I am afraid.

Yes. It would. Mainly because it stinks. I also link it to people (from personal experience) who just don’t care about those around them and that doesn’t make for good neighbours.

It would be a deal breaker irrespective of how nice the property is
Its unsavoury and if you notice your guests etc will too

It would put me off.
i had to previously ask people to not smoke I side their flat as it would fill our flat with weed smell, and I had a baby and a toddler. In my experience weed smokers don’t care that they are stinking out the neighbourhood, or that children have to walk through/ live in their weed cloud. Or that people cannot enjoy sitting in their garden/ dry their washing/ opening their windows…
i could also see that the neighbour wouldn’t particularly care about deceiving potential nee neighbours - they won’t want people in there who will give them trouble.

Yes, and it is deeply hypocritical of me as I also have a lovely, friendly neighbour who smokes a lot of weed and we can smell it when infront of our house in the summer.

He is a charming, kind, paramedic who was central to a lot of the local street's community activity during lockdown, and does a lot to organise local community events, and we enjoy the odd beer together, in the summer, weather permitting. But nobody else knows that, do they?

I have had the enjoyment of two other (rented) homes/flats ruined by very heavy cigarette smoking neighbours in the past. Neighbours were also perfectly lovely people, but wouldn't want to have to deal with a home that smelt of cigarette smoke due to neighbours again. Sorry.

If it is rented should you perhaps contact landlord? If children social service? I absolutely hate the obsession with cannabis. It is a cat b drug ...

Do you think he is growing it?
That will really smell - if he just smokes at the end of his garden it oughtn't reek so much.

On reflection OP, I think where the house is does have an impact on this.

I live in/the lovely weed-smoking paramedic neighbour of mine, lives in east London. I have lived in east London all my life and it is just what east London smells like! I appreciate that Tunbridge Wells might smell a bit different.

I also wonder, if he is so lovely, if you could not just have a chat if you have a house viewing that day/the next day. It would kill me to speak to my neighbour about this, but I think he would understand, and it wouldn't kill the relationship. I think edibles would smooth the conversation further tbh...

Sorry this would be a hard no from me.
I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask him to stay indoors during the viewing but as there will be several viewings it sounds very difficult tbh. And I would be fuming if I found out that this had been hidden from me tbh.

if he owns his house I don’t think you can do anything, sadly

This is different gravy

Yeah the idea of having the “you’re stinking our house out and we don’t want to put buyers off” conversation just wants to make me die inside. And as much as I’m sure he’d be ok I can’t help but worry I’d secretly really insulted him. It also feels silly to have this conversation after 3ish years of this on and off.

I definitely am going to chicken out and ask DH to have the conversation with him.

Definitely a no from me too. Horrible smell and so antisocial as it's a smell that spreadsheet and lingers. Sorry OP 😞

It would be a deal breaker for me too. Based on awful anti social neighbours I've had over recent years I'll be asking my next seller lots of questions about the neighbours though!

Also, unless it's a windy day the stench just seems to linger so even if he's not outside during any actual viewings it's still possible the smell will still be there anyway. Also, as someone asked up thread, are you sure it can't be smelt inside your house when he smokes inside as it can come through the walls.

And yes he does own his house but even if he rented I wouldn’t be reporting him to his landlord. That’s savage.

Our neighbours go for a morning fag on their patio and it comes in my bedroom window if the wind is going the wrong way. It wakes me up (that and they seem to take all their calls on speakerphone in the garden!). The recent bad weather has been a nice break!

It would put me off as I hate stoners.

If you get on with him you could ask him to not smoke before/during viewings, but you don't 100% know how he'll respond.

It's also a bit mean to keep it from people who'll have to live next to it for your own gain @Cucucachu

There IS a Police Officer in a road not too far away, Police person's house is close to a house full of students who smoked weed that made the neighbours feel sick in summer. {I dog walked my dog with one of the people who found it sickly }

So say the copper just had a word about the smell being off-putting.. they definitely didn't go in all heavy handed.
Do police even care about small amounts of weed these days?

It's not like the 1970's or 80's.

Good.

I'm not a fan of the smell of smoke (from any kind of leaf), but landlordism disgusts me far more.

It would put me off because I can’t tolerate the smell, it gives me headaches. Also I would worry what other antisocial habits the neighbour has that will effect me.I wouldn’t even want a reduction in price for it.

An acquaintance of mine had a child with learning difficulties and when we were talking about it, it turns out that there was a heavy weed smoker/grower downstairs who had been there since they moved in. I raised it with him that it might all be linked. The child never really spoke. Anyway, they moved away. I think there are big risks here when living near someone who does this regularly.

Yes that would put me off

It would bother or not bother me depending on the context. I don’t mind the smell personally and if he was a lecturer with lots of books - that’s fine. 😂

If looked like he’d be a dealer with streams of randoms day and night, that’s a different matter.

Yep. You’re going to be really lucky to seek with that issue!