Anyone with experience of a neighbours house that stinks of smoke?

[SantasComingToTown]

My neighbours house absolutely stinks of stale smoke, to the point where when the windows are open you can smell the house from the street. To make matters worse I can’t have any of my windows open if they also have theirs open because my whole house stinks of cigarettes. It’s particularly bad in our upstairs bedrooms. We even had to relocate my babies nursery to the front of the house because of it.

I’ve contacted the council and they have said they class the smell as reasonable (haven’t visited) because my neighbour is entitled to use the home as they wish. I argued that we also have the right to use our home as we wish and shouldn’t be subject to second hand smoke in our house especially when we have a baby. I am genuinely worried that this could effect our health as we currently have no access to fresh air in our home at all during the summer months, and when we do open the windows we are breathing in smoke instead.

Has anyone had experience with something similar and was there anything you could do?

I want to add I am not complaining about my neighbour smoking, completely appreciate they are entitled to do so and I have no issue with it, as the smell would soon disperse after they finished, this is about the smell inside the property which then makes the whole of my reek.

They do have mental issues.

they shared quite early on with notes posted through our letterbox to state their medication has been increased. The police have also needed to use our ladder on 3 occasions as they had welfare calls and the housing association came round to tell us that they suffer with mental health conditions when they wouldn’t answer the door to them. So I’m not really sure what the point of your reply is to be honest

I haven’t actually spoken to the neighbours directly joined on the other side of them. We are at the top of the road in a row of three houses so the rest of the street won’t be getting it as bad as the two of us joined onto him, but when I’ve been out in the front garden I’ve heard a few passers by comment on the smell so it’s definitely not be being overly sensitive to the smell

It’s not coming from my house. It only smells in mine when he opens his windows or doors. You can smell if from the street outside so it’s not because of anything inside my house. And I used to have friends who were heavy smokers when I was at uni and their flat absolutely reeked of smoke and I would always come out smelling like if been chain smoking. They never had the windows open either as they didn’t want the car to get out so it really does permeate into the carpets etc. It’s like a old persons house that smell musty, but it’s stale smoke. That’s the best way I describe it

You mentioned the housing association coming round to see them, if it's a HA house speak to them. They will have an interest in the home remaining habitable and if it's that bad it won't be habitable after your neighbour moves out. Are there maybe hoarding issues too?

Sympathies as I have a very sensitive nose and cannot stand cigarette smoke and stale tobacco, it must be awful to live with.