I need to build a fence, so to speak.
Reason #951,768 why I hate living in an apartment:
Last night we were giving Timmy a bath when I noticed that my shirt smelled like smoke. Given that I had just changed out of my work clothes and into a clean shirt, folded in my drawer, I thought this was odd. After inspecting the dryer, the kitchen, our bedroom and closet, I discovered the source. Our next door neighbors were on their balcony (which is adjacent to ours) smoking cigarettes. Now we like to keep our windows and doors open (with screens) year round pretty much so we don't have to use A/C. But the smoke was traveling through our vents, all the way to the opposite end of the apartment (to Timmy's room).
We asked them to please stop smoking out there and shut our door. I think they did, but it happens all the time. Is it wrong of me to be annoyed that they would smoke out there? On the one hand, if I were a smoker, I would probably feel entitled to smoke on my own balcony. But on the other hand, it's SOOO invasive of everyone else's lives. Nevermind the fact that I have asthma and a young child, I find the smell of smoke disgusting and I find it a problem if I can't ever open my windows, not to mention enjoy being out on my own balcony. At first, I thought asking them to smoke inside their own apartment might solve the problem, but now I wonder if it would still get through the vents.
I long for the day where the only people in my "air space" are people in my house, where I don't hear parties and screeching cars at all hours of the night, where the building fire alarms don't go off during nap time, and where my morning trek to the car doesn't involve elevators. I love my little community but I could not be more ready to escape apartment living.
Does anyone out there with better manners and/or more patience have advice on how to handle situations with neighbors like this one?
4 comments:
I helped a woman pro bono with this issue. If there's a disability (maybe asthma would work), there could be an ADA issue if you request accommodation and it's denied. The best bet is to live in a place with no smoking mandated (it's pretty common here to have a no smoking building or community).
And ugh. That would seriously piss me off.
This is tough. On one hand, I'm with you on hating how invasive smoke is and wishing it could be contained. On the other, like you said, it seems reasonable for your neighbors to be able to smoke out on their balcony. The only way I can think of to get them to stop would be to make friends with them and get them to sympathize with your asthma/baby situation.
Have you complained to your management company? Or would that make you feel even more awkward to your neighbors? I don't think that anything your neighbors do should interrupt your quiet enjoyment.
Smoking neighbors are highly annoying. Our old apartment building was smoke free and we had a problem with the downstairs neighbors smoking in their apartment and the smell coming through the floor. It was against building policy so I just reported it to management and it rarely happened after that.
In your case I sympathize with you about the annoyance, but if it's not against building policy I'm not sure there's much you can do other than plead with them.
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