To be absolutely furious with my neighbour?

[Smurphy99]

I live in a rented semi detached house. The neighbour attached to me I generally get on quite well with. However there are a few issues that are really starting to grate on me.
Every evening her and her partner smoke weed on their patio, just meters from my back door. In this heat obviously we have the windows open, I have a young child (DD3), and the house is absolutely stinking of cannabis. I hate hate hate the smell and often by the time we have smelt it we don’t have enough time to get all the windows shut before it’s lingering in our house.
As if this wasn’t bad enough, she has now quite spontaneously brought a parrot.
I have nothing against parrots or indeed most birds in general, however she leaves it in its cage 24/7 and every evening for hours opens her back patio doors and pushes its cage out into the garden for it to get some “fresh air”. Queue a CONSTANT, extremely loud, extremely high pitched almost whistle noise from said bird. This goes on and on and on and on. I regularly text her complaining that we need sleep and the bird is driving me insane, to which she does in fairness close the doors. However it’s every night. I don’t know if any of you have a young parrot but the noise is just grating.
There have been various other issues, such as her children loudly playing in the garden at very unsociable hours of the evening, loud arguments between her and her partner and lots of banging noises from the house late at night and early mornings.
I do in general get along with them and don’t want to rock the boat, is there a polite way I can request her to smoke at the bottom of the garden? And for goodness sake get rid of the bird? We do share a landlord and at this point as I listen to the bird shriek AGAIN, I’m considering making a serious complaint. AIBU?

Poor parrot.

Do you know what species and what size cage it is? Keeping it in a cage 24/7 is probably not illegal but you may want to tell the RSPCA (who, sadly, don't really have the resources unless it's a mass hoarding neglect issue) - or a local rescue, who sometimes work collaboratively with owners to convince them to re-home.

The RSPCA will do the square root of nothing. A complete chocolate teapot of an organisation. It might not be their fault in the sense they don’t have enough legal powers, but they have been apathetic to the point of paralysis in campaigning for change.

It isn't. The poster was going on about " oh but it's actually drugs and illegal" in her rant. I merely asked if it wasn't illegal would it smell better. Because it was the illegal bit she seemed to be focused on

If you want to yes, you can’t dictate where other people smoke if they’re not on your property

One of my friends has a noisy parrot in a cage. I’m just grateful I don’t live next door!

To be fair, it belonged to her dad who lived rurally and he passed away a couple of years ago so she rehomed it herself. They can live a very long time. 😩

Absolutely understand your POV, OP. I have this myself when I can smell cannabis in my garden and it's revolting. I'm not sure where it comes from however!
You can contact the council and put in a complaint regarding odour nuisance (I have done this regarding a neighbour not cleaning up their dogs' faeces🤮) At my local council it comes under pollution control. You can also complain about noise nuisance.
The fact they are also smoking cannabis whilst "caring" for children probably justifies a complaint to social services!

The fact they are also smoking cannabis whilst "caring" for children probably justifies a complaint to social services!

Social services, correctly, will not give a shit about two people smoking a joint in their garden after the kids are in bed.

'red pill men'?

Update for anyone following parrot saga.
it drove me mental. I could hear it constantly. A ridiculously loud, high pitched chirp. Every three seconds. Constantly. Even when I couldn’t hear it I was convinced I could hear it.
Im pregnant and very nauseous. I came home from work and desperately just wanted some sleep. Her kids were in the garden screaming at the top of their lungs and the parrot was going and again, I could smell the weed.
I lost it. I lost my absolute shit. I let loose at her. I told her every single unacceptable thing she does, parrot, screaming kids, weed, the lot.
she apologised profusely and has relocated the fucking bird somewhere else in the house and I can no longer hear it.
the kids are now actively being parented and told not to scream in the garden.
haven’t smelt any cannabis since.
wish I’d done it in a calmer and more respectful manner but I got my point across and at least for now the waters are calm.
I’ve given a stern warning that if anything happens again I will complain to LL, and any other relevant necessary agencies.
she seems to understand. For anyone else in similar positions, I recommend just going mental. 😉

Ex-cannabis user, so don't mind the smell personally, but there's no way I'd inflict it on my neighbours...
As for the parrot, it's evil to cage birds imho I hate it... teach the parrot to swear, or to shriek "DON'T SMOKE WEEEEEEEED! DON'T SMOKE WEEEEEEEED!" 🦜

Well done @Smurphy99
I’ve just found your post and so happy to see your update! Good for you!

Oops, written before I saw the final update - glad things are better, and kudos to you for losing it 😀🦜

Well done OP.

I’m not proud of it but I did something similar after listening to a neighbours dog barking and howling every night for at least half an hour anywhere from 22:30 to midnight. Used to wake the kids in the summer if I left windows open. I hate confrontation, so kept hoping another neighbour would have a word. But after 3 years of very British internalised fury, I snapped, went round at 11:30 in my PJ’s and lost my shit at her. She didn’t apologise at the time, but I never heard it bark at that time of night again.

I can't stand the smell of cannabis and also birds in cages are quite depressing to me. I feel for you! I don't think you're overreacting to be upset by what's happening.

Call the police if it's illegal.

The parrot probably won't last long. I'm sure she puts it outside because she can't stand the screeches either.

Given its not legal she doesn't have to suck it up, she would with cigarettes but not cannabis.

I was going to say you need to just let go and lose your shit and I can see you have!! 👏🏻 👏🏻 👏🏻

What? That's a really ignorant thing to say.

Oh no OP! This would really upset me. Weed is for cunts. I hate the smell. Its the absolute worst

Good on you op. There's nothing like pregnancy rage is there! I was a force to be reckoned with when I was pregnant haha. And yes, for these types who are so ignorant to behave like this in the first place, going mental tends to be the only thing that works.
That poor parrot though. Hate birds stuck in cages. But my word, the noises that come out of them are something else, having been in the company of them at a lovely aviary in a small zoo, I wouldn't want to live next door to one.

Great news. If she doesn't give a toss about stinking you out, you don't have to care about her either.

There are all sorts of things that grow in the garden that smell rancid. It may take some experimentation to see which ones your neighbours find particularly disgusting.

I highly recommend Comfrey tea. It's ever so easy to buy established plants from amazon or a garden center. When the leaves are left in water to rot it makes this wondeeful brown liquid fertiliser to use on your plants.

Unfortunately the leaves have an ungodly stench while they are decomposing. It would be such a shame if you kept this concoction going all summer, right next to where they like to smoke, wouldn't it?

Oh my god - you're advising to make a family homeless over a smell?!? How heartless and over the top. Just talk to neighbours about it politely and go from there.

Cue , queue is dosnt matter, I'm sure we all knew what she meant. The OP asked for advice not an English lesson.

Great news! So glad for you ☺️