New neighbours complaining about our toilet

[Amanda98]

We’ve got a new build where one side of our house completely backs on to a neighbours garden - that’s the back wall/boundary of their garden essentially.

Downstairs, we have a toilet with a window which is on the side of the house where that wall is, and has a small window which opens at the top. Their garden is slightly lowered so it isn’t within reaching distance. It’s a fairly odd design but we’ve lived here for years with no issues.

The neighbours have recently changed. In one of the early weeks in April when it was warm, they put a note through the door which asked we keep the window closed when it’s sunny because of the smell. We don’t really open it much anyway so thought nothing of it.

We’ve since had a further note through this week asking it stays closed on Saturday because they are hosting a BBQ for a family members birthday. We also have family over on Saturday and the downstairs loo is the one they’d naturally use.

Are the neighbours being CF? They surely can’t expect us to introduce a rule where we only crap upstairs whenever they say so!

The "gravity assist" of upstairs toilets helps push everything down the drains.

There is less of that from a downstairs toilet, so it is far more common for them to get blockages. So a lot of people don't use them for solids as the blockages are unpleasant and expensive to clear.

This of course may explain the smell, because the stuff isn't getting flushed as far it is lingering in the drain and the smell is getting out.

As an aside, the aggressive responses here make me laugh. I mean if you are going to start a war with your neighbours, at least start a war over something worthwhile. Accomodating them over a barbeque a couple of times a summer doesn't seem too bad to me, and might come in useful as a bargaining chip when they do something to piss you off in the future.

It's a classic case of those giving the advice not having to live with the consequences.

What the actual fuck 😂

I agree. As a one-off I’d agree to not open the window while theyve their barbecue. Are your family members closing the lid when flushing? For next door to smell the toilet, it must be horrendous.

Agree with others that it's a poor design, but do you have other bathrooms your DH and sons can use instead?

My upstairs bathroom window opens out towards our ndn’s side path. He is often out there, pottering about as he keeps his gardening tools and mini greenhouse there.

I always close the window before going to the loo because I don’t want my lovely ndn hearing me go. It’s just politeness.

Perhaps @Amanda98your neighbours don’t want to sit in their garden listening to people pooing. Quite reasonable really.

It’s a bad (likely illegal) design. You shouldn’t have a window opening over their land. Let alone a toilet one.

I can’t imagine it’s nice for them sitting in the garden listening to people go to the toilet. I would always shut a window if people were outside. Also, your toilet shouldn’t smell so much. Your family sound revolting.

Tell them they have an argument with their surveyor not you. Also, the friggin cheek of it! Telling you what to do and when. That would lead me to throw serious stinkbombs out the window.

In other news they could just ask you very nicely if you'd mind awfully if they put up a trellis on your wall so they coud plant some fragrant climbers like honesuckle or tracholospermum jasminoides. Sometimes you get lemons - make lemonade!

I had the same image when I read that sentence. Unfortunately. 🤢

Oh and yes, upstairs loo for poo. Downstairs for a wee only. Gravity and all that.

Are the four men in your life able to climb a flight of stairs? Tell them only wee downstairs which is surely what a downstairs loo is for.
It must be bad for a neighbour to complain and why would you accept that smell wafting around the ground floor, where people eat.
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Is he incontinent then? Or he farts continuously. How can he reek that much and surely he lives alone if he smells to that extent?

I agree
Although the window has to open in. You can’t have it opening out, that’s trespass
Whilst I’m fully aware you are allowed opening windows on boundaries I think it’s a horrible thing to do to neighbours.
With a toilet I would have installed an extractor facing into the toilet owners garden. Not a window.

Or they could build a wall or solid fence adjacent to block it out completely

I don't really get it. My DH frequently uses the downstairs toilet for his unmentionables, and believe me, that shit stinks. Occasionally the pipe gets blocked due to the lack of gravity assist referred to by a pp. None of this can be detected by a human nose in the garden directly outside, even with the window open. Not that I stand out there sniffing, you understand. But it's right by the front door. I'm bound to be in the line of olfactory fire from time to time.

You can have an opening window but it must open in.
I think the max opening size is 1m2 ( off the top of my head as it’s not something I would ever design in )

From one person with strange neighbours to the other, please keep it open! It’s a power move by them.

At ground level? Doesn’t the overlooking aspect rule it out?
Maybe they only got away with it because a toilet window has to be opaque.

The glass has to be obscured yes

The window is closed when someone is on the loo, so they shouldn’t hear anything. The issue is when the need arises to open it…

Everyone on here seems to be obsessed with their rights, so because legally they CAN go to the toilet within feet of their neighbour eating outside, they will. People joking about curries and getting people to do it more often etc...

What about being a good neighbour? I'd be embarrassed if someone sent me a note like that.

It seems extreme to me to be able to smell it from outside. Surely it’s dissipated enough that you wouldn’t smell it out in the garden and fresh air unless they’re stood right outside the window waiting for a sniff. This is so weird.

For goodness sake, how close is your loo to their collective noses?

It is either exceptionally close and therefore, very badly designed, or they are massively unreasonable and prissy.

I would not discount their complaint if you are living on top of one another as these new builds are designed to do, and developers don't give a fuck about.

Strike a match to burn off the smell. Briefly set a piece of twisted loo roll on fire for good measure. Drop both in the loo to extinguish.

...it satisfies the arsonist in me, but also genuinely works.

I agree. I mean there must be a smell rather than it all being in their heads.. how else would they know that that room has a toilet in??

Whilst I have some sympathy for them having your toilet window open to their garden, they can't control how you use your home. My neighbours have an upstairs bathroom that is near our back patio, but set back maybe 6 feet from our property. We've consider growing something up to give us both privacy but it's turned out not to be a problem. It's a solution we'll keep in the bag for any changes in circumstances though.