Have we rendered our home un-sellable?

[SaveMeTheWaltz]

I'll try to keep this brief. In October we purchased and moved into our new house (one street over from our old flat - we've lived in the area for years and it is generally considered a 'nice' area, so what has happened has taken us by surprise). It very quickly became clear that the tenants living in the council-owned property next door had a major marijuana habit - think acrid skunk, smoked from around 11am until bed time most days. We initially tried to address it with them politely in person, which resulted in the female tenant threatening me; after a quick call to the council we decided route go down the route of police and council involvement.

Fast forward a few months. The police have visited the property several times, and the tenants have admitted marijuana use on camera. The police have issued a community protection order against the tenants, who don't seem bothered at all and are still carrying on as they were before. The council is now refusing to acknowledge the problem, and will not respond to my emails.

This was supposed to be the home that we'd bring our children up in and live in until we got old, but the whole situation is so horrible that we'd like to cut our losses, sell up and move on. However, there's now a record of anti-social behaviour at the property next door, which we'd have to declare. Has anyone managed to sell a house under these conditions? Has anyone managed to get their local council to take drug smoking tenants seriously? Can anyone give me advice? I'm feeling increasingly desperate and trapped and would very much appreciate an outside perspective on this. Thanks for reading this.

Marijuana smells lovely. I'd take that over noise any day ;)

@MsMitford: I sold my flat due to neighbours antisocial weed habits - which got worse & became noticeable to me during lockdown (I wasn’t home much before!)

I found it disgusting, intrusive… and complaining set off a v negative chain of communication with my neighbour

I think the smell did put off viewers; I instructed my EA to hold viewings early morning, they said ‘we don’t want to know why’

Can you look into the Sanctum recco?

If kids are in property get social services involved too

I think in London it’s v v hard to get people evicted for drug use, selling is a different story

@Sandrine1982

Marijuana smells lovely. I'd take that over noise any day ;)

Noise is fucking dire.

@Sandrine1982

Marijuana smells lovely. I'd take that over noise any day ;)

It smells rank and no one else should have to put up with the smell in your own property. In my experience if they are prolific smokers of weed anti social behaviour normally goes hand in hand with it. We had noise, weed, parties, randoms passing out in the communal areas, abuse when we did complain. Every time I went out I would get abuse or fingers stuck up at me through the window etc.....

It doesn't have to be either/or. Well, at least it's not NOISE! is hardly the point, really.

We have an antisocial neighbour here - mad as a box of frogs and always kicking off. It culminated with him and his daughter getting convicted of assault on several of us one evening. The next door neighbour to the mad man was attacked and there was a long record with the police. She sold her house shortly after and said nothing about all of this on her forms. This was around two years ago. The new buyer got friendly with mad man and must've been told by them of the issues. The buyer threatened to sue the seller. The seller's solicitor responded that basically this was not a boundary issue and just because she didn't get on with the neighbours there was no reason to believe anyone new wouldn't get on with them. And that was the end of it. Might be worth a conversation with a solicitor as similar cases to yours have made it to court and have lost.

It's Cheech & Chong, not Cheech and Chong.

This country really is going to hell in a hand basket - educational standards these days are abysmal.

@Egeegogxmv

It's just a smell fgs, I'm a vegan and I tolerate the smell of meat cooking from the neighbours

This!

It smells disgusting, I really feel sorry for you OP. How will lighting a candle help if the smell is that strong and what if they are in the garden!
The OP and her family shouldn't have to put up with that smell, anyone condoning it is equally as disgusting as those who smoke it.

Bustpipes!

It might just be a smell to some but others don't want to live next to noticable drug use. It reeks.

@malificent7

It might just be a smell to some but others don't want to live next to noticable drug use. It reeks.

In which case do your due diligence before you buy a house. It wouldn’t bother us - I quite like it and the bloke’s got no sense of smell - but if I knew it was an issue I’d be visiting at differing times of day to check it out properly.

A bit late now @Blossomtoes. If you’ve never come across the problem you probably won’t think of it. I’m sure the OP will be doing olfactory tests at different times of day when she buys her next property.

I wonder what happens in Canada now if your neighbours use cannabis and you don't like the smell?

@BustPipes

It's Cheech & Chong, not Cheech and Chong.

This country really is going to hell in a hand basket - educational standards these days are abysmal.

Ludes? I don't have any ludes, man!

@Egeegogxmv

I wonder what happens in Canada now if your neighbours use cannabis and you don't like the smell?

And they BBQ a lot there.

The smell of barbecues is so offensive!!!

@whataboutbob

A bit late now *@Blossomtoes*. If you’ve never come across the problem you probably won’t think of it. I’m sure the OP will be doing olfactory tests at different times of day when she buys her next property.

You’d have to be living in an ivory tower not to have come across the “problem” in London. I bet there’s more than a whiff around multi million £ properties where teenagers live.

@Egeegogxmv

The smell of barbecues is so offensive!!!

And on MN, people are doing it multiple times a day! Those Canucks are probably firing up the BBQ to make their breakfast porridge and smoking a doobie whilst doing it.

I have sympathy - the smell is nauseating. As bad as tobacco smoke. And the association of it is bad too - I shared a student house with a couple of people who just sat around getting stoned all day (didn’t realize they were into it before I moved it) and it was so depressing them sitting there with the curtains shut during the day just spaced out. Grim. Young people who could have been out and about living as they were at uni, but just sitting around watching crap.

Reading with interest - I have a similar situation, although in my case the council did act decisively and the tenants were evicted. However, happened more than once, which looks bad.

My thoughts are that it’s pointless going after the previous owner unless you know they made an official complaint they didn’t declare. As this thread and many others price, nuisance (and therefore things likely to cause a dispute) are very subjective. I’ve no doubt the things I complained about, and which did lead to evictions, would not have been problems for other people. I also believe you must declare disputes that have been successfully resolved. Unfortunately for me.

Sad to see the usual phenomenon of posters who aren’t bothered by this having a laugh at those who are. I’d love to be chilled about noise and intrusive smells. I’m not. I’ve had bad anxiety due to being confronted with this stuff. So funny!

Sorry, I didn't mean to laugh. I myself am a very very anxious person and I can't tolerate anti social behaviour, especially noise. But I completely understand, OP. I quite like the smell of weed, but I don't think I would like it it was on 24/7 and very strong. We're moving out of a council estate now (where 50% are private owners tho), and I say, NEVER AGAIN ....

You could suggest they switch to edibles?
no smell there!

I also don't see the appeal of being under the influence of cannabis all day long, I use it in the evening to relax and help me sleep but I know some people find it helpful for pain relief during the day.
I use a vaporizer instead of smoking, better for the lungs not the vape cartridges though, I think they can be a bit iffy?