When you move into your new home, the last thing you expect is some less than desirable smells - especially when they're coming from people who live nearby. One woman was left flabbergasted after realising her upstairs neighbour smoked in the apartment, rather than going outside for a cigarette, but when confronted, the neighbour claimed she smoked outside.
The woman took to Reddit 's 'Neighbours from Hell' thread to give some context surrounding the situation. She explained that she has asthma, and other than smoking there have been no other issues with the people who live next door, but she was upset that her neighbour was deceptive, and didn't know what steps to take next.
She wrote: "We just moved into a new apartment unit in late September. The neighbours are all nice and I like it so far.
"My issue is my downstairs neighbour smokes ALL the time. I have asthma and other health problems so I can't handle this. I asked her about three weeks ago to smoke outside but she claims she does.
"I know she doesn't because I can hear her in her apartment and I always go let my dog out to see if she's outside. It's her and her two kids. She's a super sweet girl and young mum so I don't want to get her into trouble but my apartment smells like an ashtray. My kids have started to cough a lot too.
"In our apartments, all smoking is prohibited in or around the units. People can smoke on the sidewalk but they typically don't want to walk up the stairs to do so. I don't know if I should try to talk to her again or just speak with the office.
"I can't afford an air purifier or I would have already gotten one. Any other advice? Thanks!"
Others were also not pleased with the behaviour of the woman upstairs, encouraging the original poster to go straight to their landlord.
One wrote: "Call your landlord. She isn't 'super sweet', she already lied to you about smoking outside and she is breaking the rules by doing it inside.
"Being a single mum is no excuse to smoke inside. It's actually worse considering she is forcing her children to deal with her secondhand smoke."
Another also suggested reporting the neighbour, writing: "Report the neighbour. Or if you are sensitive to reporting her, ask your landlord to come to your apartment to investigate it. I had an issue that was similar, I couldn't figure out which apartment it was coming from though.
"I called the office of my apartment and asked them to come to smell my room lol. I was like listen, my room smells like smoke often. Can you come here and smell it and see if you can figure out where it's coming from?
"I have nothing against people who smoke, I just want to be able to be in my room without feeling like I'm dying. I can't even open a window to air it out because I'm allergic to so many things outside that it makes my breathing worse.
"An air purifier helps a lot, and when I'm outside wearing a mask helps a bit. But you shouldn't need to do these things just to exist in your own apartment. I hope you're able to breathe easier soon!"
Others recommended a softer approach, despite the fact the woman had already asked her neighbour to smoke outside.
They said: "Maybe if you don't want to be too aggressive just to tell her hey, people are smelling the smoke around the apartment and I know there's a strict rule against it and I wanted to let you know so you don't get in trouble."
What would you do in this situation? Let us know in the comments.
