Smoking Cigarettes/Neighbor Problem

[thebruce44]

Wow, I'm glad some of you aren't my neighbors.

 

It is common courtesy really. Is it a pain to live next to the guy, sure, but as a non-smoker myself, if my life was constantly being disrupted by someone who chooses to smoke and not consider those around me who do not smoke, I would find that to be rude.

 

Yea, if you read his posts none of that is whats happening here.

 

Anyway, I had a somewhat similar incident when my last tenants moved into my condo. The people on the floor below instantly started emailing me every day to complain about the noise. After speaking with my tenants and a few other neighbors, it became obvious that the tenants weren't doing anything abnormal in the space they were paying to live in. Simply walking around in socks was too loud for the neighbors below (I was the only other person to live above them and I was never home so any noise was new to them). In the end, we had to tell the neighbor below to more or less deal with it and to not harass my tenants who have a right to live their lives in their space without making excessive noise. The neighbors had no legal recourse and the board was sick of them because apparently they had been complaining about pretty much everything over the past few years.

 

You simply can't please everyone, and you certainly shouldn't rearrange your life just because someone can't play nice. If people don't want to be bothered by neighbors, they need to move out of a city or save up enough money to buy a bigger lot. Otherwise, find a way to coexist with people who are reasonably living their lives.

[Schlitz001]

You don't have to do anything to accommodate their request, but you might consider making an adjustment that's within reason, like moving to the other side of the porch or house while smoking, setting up a fan, or whatever. Even something small might tell your neighbor that you can comprimise.

[djoctagone]

smoke inside your house.

[jjkoestler]

smoke inside your house.

 

What if the windows were open? The neighbor might still smell it. Thanks though.

[Bikeage77]

I used to smoke, my wife is allergic to cigarette smoke, the smell of smoke bothers both of us. When my downstairs neighbor moved in he smoked in the house and it came straight up through the vents. We talked to him the first day and he was fine with going outside.

 

Last night we were on our balcony and he went out to smoke, we could smell it, but it was for a few minutes and that was it. It wasn't intense, but we knew it was there. Our balcony vs his porch is about 15 feet, but straight up. I know you can vaguely smell smoke from a next door neighbor depending on where they are so even 25 feet apart I suppose the neighbor can smell it. Again it won't be intense like someone blowing it in your face, but you can smell it.

 

All that said, your neighbor doesn't have any right to complain. You shouldn't have to walk down the street or go to the garage or bring a fan out or any of that.

 

See if you can come to a compromise, but really it sounds like the neighbors are just looking for something to complain about. How do they deal with loud noise? Do you ever turn up your stereo? Any of you play drums? Maybe one of you could start?

[1992casey]

It wasn't intense, but we knew it was there.

 

That's what I'm thinking. Being aware that there's smoke isn't the same as being affected by it.