AIBU to ask my next door neighbours not to smoke indoors?

[BeansOnToast41]

Genuinely not sure what my own opinion is on this so intrigued to see what the consensus is. My house is an end-of-terrace and the next door neighbours smoke indoors (sometimes normal cigarettes, sometimes weed). I’ve no major issue with smokers, but because they’re doing it inside, the smell comes through to my living room. We’ve not mentioned it to the neighbours and haven’t decided if we will or not (to be fair it isn’t constant) but I’m wondering if it would even be acceptable to ask someone not to do something which they’re well within their rights to do in their own home.

Voting is:

IABU = no you can’t ask someone not to do something in their own home
IANBU = yes totally fine to say something because the smell is coming through the wall

Don’t be ridiculous. Of course you can’t.

I’m still not convinced anyone could actually stop them. How do you enforce it? Do the police come and break down their door if someone smells a cigarette? Do they get arrested if they get caught? What would be the charge? As annoying as it might be I’m not sure there is actually anything legal that can be done.

What health issues do you think could possibly be caused by smelling - not inhaling - tobacco smoke from a neighbouring house?

I live in an old terrace and have occasional unwelcome smells from neighbours. Plugging some gaps in the party wall brickwork helped (they were behind some plasterboard that I took off for a job), but there will ne more under the floorboards and possibly in the loft.

Short of taking all the floors up to check, I wonder if some positive air pressure in your house would help, like an extractor fan from outside in reverse. Hopefully, that would mean that the air leaks would be from your house to theirs.

Let's say you did ask that and by some miracle they agree not to engage in a perfectly legal if unpleasant habit in their own home. They go and smoke in the back yard/garden and you smell it when you go in yours? They sit on the front door step and smoke and you walk through it when you arrive home?

Many see smoking as an antisocial habit, not without reason. But you can't really ask much more of people than that they do it in non-social spaces like their own house!

I don't know where they are smoking it but I can smell weed just walking past the perimeter to some houses. Would hate to smell that in my own kitchen or living room. It must be an awful pong for their neighbours.

I don't smoke but I absolutely would wet myself with laughter if I did and a neighbour asked me not to do it in my own home!

no idea. I was just responding to the health issue part.

think it came from the comment re environmental health comment someone made and I suggested yes it is if it’s coming into the home.

no idea what they’d do though.

I do smoke. I smoke indoors in my own house. I try to get on with my neighbours but I would honestly tell you that you are ridiculous and the chances of me not smoking in my own home because you don’t like the smell are absolutely zero.

How can you not know this is unreasonable, no you can’t decide what people can do in their homes,

the smell isn’t just a smell is it?!

The “smell” contains the toxins.

the “smell” means that there is a presence of those toxins.

the same with food smells. Fish smell comes from the fish particles in the air as it cooks.

fish smell - no harm

smoking smell - harm

I'd laugh in your face and tell you to move house if your so bothered. Its my house I will do whatever I want in it

I understand because I lived in a terraced once and had this exact same issue but I wouldn’t have dared say anything, it’s their house so they can do whatever they hell they like. I know it’s unpleasant though, I never lived in a terrace again.

😂😂😂

They can buy an extractor fan. I think you should say it to them.

I’ve never lived in a detached house, only ever terraced or semis. I can safely say that I’ve never smelled anything through the walls. I can smell cooking if the neighbours window is open at the same time as mine. I can smell BBQs. I can smell smoke from a garden bonfire. But that’s it, and only if I have a window open.
If you can smell cigarette smoke through a wall, you need your walls looking at. Can you also smell when they spray air freshener, or deodorant, or perfume? What about if they light candles? Or if they change a dirty nappy?

I think it depends entirely on the sort of people they are. If they are lovely and obliging and would hate to inconvenience anyone, you may drop lucky. However, will it be any better in the garden drifting through your windows? I lived next door to a weed smoker and could occasionally smell it in some rooms. However it was nothing compared to when they smoked in the yard. My washing, even my cat stank of it.

What are your houses made of that you can smell smoke through the walls?!

Thanks Professor, "smoking smell = harm" has convinced me. You should've led with that

What do your neighbours cook that can cause cancer, and increase the chances of things fro asthma to meningitis in children, from smelling it?!? Thats some crazy food.

What on earth is wrong with your party wall?! Can you not also hear every word they're saying to each other?

When i lived in a flat there was a vent in the windowless bathroom and it absolutely stank in there of other people's cigarette smoke. Horrible, we moved out because of it (well that and the pub bottle bins being emptied at 5am!).

Why so rude?

clearly people don’t understand how smells are made.

I’d get over yourself. Smoking is legal, and nothing to do with you. 🙄🙄

God, I’m so grateful that the bathroom of our semi is on the non attached side!