Our neighbours smoke in their garden and it comes in our windows. We also can't eat outside because when they light up, it puts us off our food. There are 3 of them; mother and two daughters, all smokers, so there's a fair regularity of this starting from 6am and up to after midnight.
I can smell it in any room in the house, not just the ones at the back. And if the windows are closed, it still comes in through the vents at the top and we can smell they're outside if we're in the room. I should also add that we're in a town house so the living room is on the first floor, which makes it worse as the smoke rises and come in though the window. It also does this in DS's room on the top floor.
But I know IABU to be annoyed by this because they have the right to smoke in their garden and any outdoor space they want to do this in.
So does this right extend to music in my garden? I'm so wound up with having to sit in the house on a sweltering day with the windows closed, because of next door's filthy habit, that maybe I don't want to be a considerate neighbour anymore.
I would like to put the radio on the kitchen window sill and turn it up loud enough so I can hear it when I'm sitting in the garden. Not all day, but periodically during the day when I want to sit outside. Of course, it would be quieter than the noise limit that neighbours are allowed to make, so that it's legal, just like smoking in the garden is. But they'd probably be able to hear it in their house, especially with the windows open, and they might need to close the living room window when they're watching telly.
The irony of not actually enjoying sitting out in my garden anyway, even with music, because it smells like a pub garden isn't lost on me. And of course I wouldn't do this anyway.
But I would just be interested to explore the boundaries of what is ok as a considerate neighbour and what is ok because it's legal and because you have the right to do what you want in your own space. Maybe IABU to even consider the question and for thinking smoking and listening to music outside are the same thing, who knows?
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AIBU?
Neighbours and smoking outside
36 replies
chicaguapa · 10/07/2013 20:53
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