Next door neighbor problem

[nambu2]

My husband and I are working people in our 60's and have been living in the same apartment in a nice neighborhood in north San Antonio for more than 5 years without incident. We are both non-smokers. A family moved in next door to us several months ago, a middle-aged couple with an adult daughter and teenaged son. Our front doors are about 3 feet apart with a shared top-floor landing of about 6' x 18" and a shared stairwell. Our main problem is that three members of the family intermittently smoke throughout the day, together and singly, from morning until late at night on that small shared landing outside both our doors. The smoke drifts into and fills our apartment, causing a health hazard to us and respiratory congestion for hours. Despite our repeated, polite requests to them to please smoke at the bottom of the stairwell, which they can as easily do and which is sheltered in the event of inclement weather, they refuse to do so, knowing the health problem it is causing us. In addition, when it is not too cold, they often gather on our shared landing or on occasion, their back porch adjacent to our bedroom window and talk in a very loud volume, sometimes past midnight. Two weeks ago I (the wife) had to come out at 1:30 am and politely ask them to please lower their voice; in response they increased their volume, including foul language directed at us, until 3:45 am and we never got to sleep; this is far from the first time we have been met with their rude, abusive responses to always polite requests. We have verbally complained to the manager of our complex repeatedly and she advises us that she has no legal recourse to force them to smoke other than wherever they want to, nor caution them about noise as no one else has complained. We also learned they reported a lie about us slamming our door at night. Our lease has only vague language protecting tenants from discomfort, with no night hour specified as a limit for noise. We still have until next fall on our current lease, and these neighbors are escalating what we feel is a pattern of malicious harassment, laughing and talking ever more loudly outside our door as they smoke right by it. What can we do to protect our rights as tenants and our health, if anything? We do not have the funds to pursue legal action and we gather that in this state with such minimal tenant protection, it would be futile. Thank you for whatever guidance you can provide.

 

[Gail_in_Georgia]

I'm confused. If your doors are closed, how is the smoke drifting in and filling your apartment, causing you health risks?

The problem is that both you and these tenants have legal access to this landing and back porch. You can ask them to move elsewhere to smoke but they are under no legal obligation to grant your request. As for the noise; you can consider calling the cops if there's lots of very late night noise, but this is not going to make these folks very happy.

These sorts of things aren't unusual when folks live in "ant hill" types of living situations (i.e., apartments). Sounds like you've lucked out for the last five years by having more considerate neighbors.

Gail

 

[nambu2]

Gail,

Thank you for your reply. We would not call the police unless there was complete mayhem, with loud music, people swinging from trees, etc. Our apartment manager has resolved the problem now anyway.

We have friends who smoke so we're not against peoples' right to smoke; when smokers come to our house, they go out on our balcony, no problem.

As regards the cigarette smoke outside our door, it does flow into our apartment, causing us to cough when we come home from work. But worse than that is the longer term risk of second-hand smoke not only for us, but especially for kids:

"Inhaling secondhand smoke causes lung cancer in nonsmoking adults (4). Approximately 3,000 lung cancer deaths occur each year among adult nonsmokers in the United States as a result of exposure to secondhand smoke (2). The Surgeon General estimates that living with a smoker increases a nonsmoker's chances of developing lung cancer by 20 to 30 percent (4). "

"Children exposed to secondhand smoke are at an increased risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), ear infections, colds, pneumonia, bronchitis, and more severe asthma. Being exposed to secondhand smoke slows the growth of children's lungs and can cause them to cough, wheeze, and feel breathless (4)." (This information is from the National Cancer Institute.)

 

[Gail_in_Georgia]

I'm quite familiar with the National Cancer Institute since I work in health care.

You're in your 60's so I'm assuming you have no young children living with you (you indicated in your first post it was just you and your husband). You have no control over whether the neighbors choose to smoke in front of their teenage son.

Sounds like the issue with the noise has been taken care of.

Gail

 

[nambu2]

You're right, the issue seems to be resolved now and there are no kids here; I was thinking of another neighbor here who also smokes and has two small children, and comes up to join our neighbors to smoke sometimes, but that is her decision. I actually think that even in cities that have banned smoking, smokers should have restaurants, bars, etc they can go to, even designated airplane flights where they can smoke, especially those long intercontinental flights. The point is not to deprive smokers of their right to smoke, but to balance them fairly with the rights of non-smokers. That's my piece.

 

[freeindeed]

The principle here is a lack of consideration for others and a lack of respect for your elders. In other words the smoking loud talkers next door have no morals.