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’s a good example of why it’s important to meet the NDNs of any property you’re considering.

It wouldn’t put me off. Noise or scruffiness of neighbours would be a major dealbreaker but not weed.

I'm no fan of the minimisation of the risks associated with weed use, but that sounds like an absolutely dispicable thing to say to the parents of a disabled child and I hope you are ashamed of yourself.

Honestly, this thread has made me deeply thankful for my occassionally-smelly-but-lovely weed-smoking paramedic neighbour, and grateful I don't live next-door to people who make horrible comments to the parents of children with disabilities or suggest trying to get renters evicted for behaving in a mildly irriating way.

Yes it would. Keep your windows shut and plenty of candles on 😂

What an absolutely awful thing for you to have done

It would put me off.

It's a very strong smell that I wouldn't want to tolerate. No different to me not wanting to live next door to a fishmonger tbh. I would prefer to be able to have my windows open and choose what the interior of my home smells like rather than someone else's lifestyle choice making that for me.

Weirdly (because I'm an ex copper) I'd be less bothered by the fact NDN is smoking something illegal. I'm not in the 'cannabis is harmless' camp (because it definitely isn't), but it's so ubiquitous these days just the fact someone smokes it doesn't mean it equates to antisocial behaviour and crime in the user's neighbourhood. Middle class types manage to get their weed and leave the fallout from their habit in less fortunate neighbourhoods (unless they're growing it themselves).

Did they actually move away? Or just tell you that to avoid someone who said something so grim about a disabled child.

Yes it would put me off.

Personally it would put me off buying a property, sorry!!

BUT…we sold a year ago with the exact same issue. Our neighbours teenage daughter was smoking it out the bedroom window and blaring music 😭 I was so worried about viewings but it sold ridiculously quickly!! House on the market at 11am Friday and had a first offer at 3.30pm the same day 😅😂 we were under offer on Monday morning. So don’t lose all hope!

I also get what you mean about your children. Ours was where I brought our son home to and was our little safe haven for months of just him and I during the lockdowns even DH was abroad working. I was really sad to let our house go!

Absolutely would put me off, and I would be well pissed off if you agreed with him not t9 do it when you had viewings, moved in and there it was

Absolutely.

@Cucucachu Many years ago as a student people used to smoke spliffs under a cooker extraction hood that filtered the smells away.

Could this bloke not do that?

I do remember one hot summer a neighbour complaining to his wife about ''a funny smell'' as all the windows were open and the air hung heavy.

I had new neighbours who used to smoke what I thought was weed, but it was in fact stinking hellebore - a very similar class of smell...
Fox pee smells very 'Skunky' as well.

Almost impossible to tell the two apart sometimes.

Near Prince Charles's home we found crack and heroin paraphernalia dumped on a green lane while dog walking - some wealthy local user who'd clearly driven there to get stoned...and wealthy enough to leave traces behind. {edit: a poor user would not do that} ..friend collected it up and disposed of it.

My friend reported it to the local coppers who said ''What do you expect us to do, hide behind a tree in case they come back?'' 😑

I live in a nice, quite expensive area. NDN’s teen son smokes weed in the back garden and I can smell it in the summer. They are lovely neighbours and he is quiet and polite - takes my bin in regularly!

I didn’t notice when I viewed the house - I don’t think it would have put me off but the houses are detached so It’s not as big an issue.

I wouldn’t have seen it as a flag of other anti social behaviour. And so far it hasn’t been.

You think a neighbour smoking week was the cause of the child's learning difficulties? Wow.
Are you stoned?

This is a really good point. As a teenager I was appalled by the hypocrisy of my parents' very 'right on' public-sector working friends, who did A LOT of class As, Bs and Cs, while bemoaning the impact of the gang-related shootings in nearby neighbourhoods, on their house prices. They never had the self-awareness that made them join-up the two...

But I don't think the houses they all lived in had an impact on that, just their choice of friends.

Have you told him how much it smells in your house?

Hard no for me too. It’s a buyer’s market right now, I’d just go elsewhere.

Hard no.

I think it's funny that you're more worried about offending the neighbour than essentially lying to the poor soul who buys your home and may have serious (legitimate) objections to smelling stinky weed all the time...

Sorry but would be a no for me. Cannot bear the smell of it.

Haven’t read the full thread so sorry if this has already been said but given smoking weed is illegal in England albeit not always enforced, if you do not declare this on the sellers form any buyers would possibly have a case against you when they found out. Certainly when we sold there were specific questions about the neighbours and knowingly concealing illegal activity by them would have left us liable.

Do you think? I think it absolutely honks. You can smell it a mile off, it’s awful.

It would definitely put me off moving with kids.

However...if I was a smoker, it would encourage me that my new neighbours wouldn't mind if I smoked 🤔So maybe you just have to wait for the right buyer! Or find a subtle way to advertise the house as being "420 friendly"

I live in a flat and there are people on my floor who smoke weed, they smoke anytime day or night. They are really nice people but the smell is horrible. The people they live next door to are trying to sell their property. It's been coming up to 18 months and they just can't sell and the smell of weed is a factor.

It's horrible for my kids to smell and horrible to walk through the stink. Thankfully we are renting so will be leaving when our tenancy is up for renewal.

After our experiences it would be a hard hard no from me.

It would put me off. Ask them. It's made me realise that I'd want to ask vendors if anyone smoked weed.

My best advice would be ' act nonchallant' pretend you have not noticed.
The Last thing you need is anything interacting with neighbour which has the potential to esca late. If people notice tell them that the neighbour has EUCALYPTYS TREES which smell. If negative banter materialises it has potential to go on permanent record of your House Information as having problems with neighbour disputes.