cigarette odour from my neighbour downstairs is making its way into my apartment recently. i don't know if i am passive smoking or it's just a smell. i guess it's seeping through the floorboards etc, no obvious cracks to seal up.

i don't know if my landlord will do much about this. my neighbour is psycho, i avoid him completely. i'm not sure if i have any legal rights.

i'm thinking of getting a hepa air filter.

any ideas folks?

If you can SMELL it...then particle are getting 'through' - yes. Your neighbor is allowed to smoke...so that's a dead end. In an older apartment setting...where the neighbors smells and activities (like smoking seep through) then...yes....all you can do is contact him. In all likelihood though....you'll have to move to a cleaner environment/neighbors....if that is a lifetime concern to you. Blessings and strength to you.

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

there was a case won about this recently. it's not going to be worth it in my case. thanks david, hopefully I'll move one of these days.

I'm currently planning to buy an apartment building or a row of houses for this exact reason. I want to start an affordable, urban living community comprised of quiet, working folks with similar lifestyles. Living next to someone who you feel is "psycho" might be worse for you than the secondary smoke. I know this all too well from experiencing the same kind of stress. If your lease says that it's a non-smoking building, then it should be the landlord's responsibility to enforce it. You might also want to google the tenant-landlord code for your state along with local and state smoking ordinances. If you find that any laws or any part of your rental agreement are being violated, and if you want to go this far, write a registered letter to your landlord where you state the problem along with copies of the documents showing that your rights are being infringed upon. Personally, I've never been too attached to any apartment. I'd just start plotting a move by carefully looking for a place more suited to my needs. Good luck Rosemary.

Maybe you could tape the nicotine patch to their door.

^^If you're starting an urban community somewhere around Toronto, let me know. I've already moved out of a building once because there was no such thing as peace and quiet, and I'm pulling my hair about the same mess again.

I'm saving for a place to call my own, but that takes time...

You could try a high quality air filter if you can afford to buy one.

Best of luck to you. I would hate to smell that stuff.

I read somewhere that if you can smell it, it's in your bloodstream.

Lungs > Bloodstream

Yuck.

yuck!
I will make a complaint to my landlord as a start.
i'm worried that it will be out of the frying pan and into the fire if i move. i hear so many neighbor problems.
at least as the weather gets warmer i can keep my windows open.

rosemary Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> > i'm worried that it will be out of the frying pan
> and into the fire if i move. i hear so many
> neighbor problems.


Rosemary, you will find something much better. Perhaps simply change your thoughts and expectations. If you want to find a better living situation you will. Most recently I dealt with a smoker living above me in an old apartment building in San Francisco for 2 years. It was unbearable at times. I bought an air filter, but I was changing the filters almost every 3 weeks - it was gross! The filters became completely black. To top it off she was a bit reclusive and psychotic as well. Never left her apartment! Computer programmer employed out of her home. Anyway, I did notify the landlord about the smoke entering my space as it was a non-smoking building. She attempted to rectify the situation, but the tenant above would still light up 24 hours a day it seemed. In the end, the landlord didn't want to deal with replacing a tenant I'm guessing and didn't evict etc...but I had to evenutally move so she had to deal with replacing someone anyway. Also in San Francisco it takes months to evict someone, so I'm sure it would've been a pain in the ass for her. It's one of the reasons I'm sharing a house right now in another city. It's much better for my overall health. I diligently visualized where I am now the last few months I was in that hell hole. However, I wasn't specific enough, LOL, I should've thought about a health conscious roommate.

I wish you well. It sucks to live somewhere you don't want to be. But sometimes it can be the catalyst to get you moving to a better place your higher self has already mapped out for you. You know...divine discontent. :-) It was time for me to move out of the city and into a more rural area where I can grow my own food, meditate and figure out my next steps. You never know what's around the corner...meaning when you're feeling hopeless, you tend to sit in that negative, hopeless energy for awhile before either you get fed up and are inspired to change it to something better, or you go in the other direction further hitting rock bottom. We have the power to change every situation we experience because we created it to grow and experience. Change begins with each of us. It's not always easy to embrace this when life is challenging, but I believe it's the truth.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/02/2008 04:22PM by rawangel.