So I (f28) have been dealing with moving into a new place where all the neighbors know each other. (Unknown ages but seem 30s) Accept me. I’m paying $1,800 a month so I expected it to be a safe secure place.
Well then I met my neighbors directly next to me who are death glair and groups and parties.
Well it’s one thing to be up to 1am every night and walking up at 4 to vacuume SLAMING against my wall but starting last week they have decided to pick up smoking. (No smoking property inside AND out. In all leases and signs all over) Either cheap cigarettes or cigars but it is insane. It’s so Smokey and hard to breathe I am having to use my nebulizer multiple times a day and sleep on my couch. I can’t even walk into my bedroom anymore. I have early onset COPD/asthma and it’s insanely sensitive to smoke and I feel like Im paying $1,800 to not even live in my own place.
I also work from home so I feel like I am literally suffocating.
I have asked them to turn their music down before when it was till 3-4 am every night and they scoffed and turned it up laughing the rest of the night.
I don’t want to be that neighbor but it’s out of control at this point and I JUST signed a year lease and moved cross country. I’m exhausted and just want a peaceful sleep.
Do I try to be more firm and intimidating with them or take it directly to the apartment? I don’t want to turn the entire floor against me but I’m genuinely getting so physically sick.
Any advice is so needed, my sleepy brain can’t process anymore.
Thanks.
8 comments
Did you view the place before you moved in?
Sounds like you don’t have much choice but to lodge a formal complaint. Your health is at risk if you stay there, and it doesn’t sound like you’d rather just pack up and move again.
But, I would suggest you consider some precautions. Putting up a security camera or doorbell cam that would capture everything if they come to confront you, having your phone in hand and being cautious when you answer any knock on the door, etc. If you catch them on cam threatening you or seriously harassing you, then you can definitely get them kicked out.
Take it to the landlord – maybe they have a comparable unit in a different building you can switch to.
Contact strata and let them know your neighbours are smoking and your health situation. Every time they do this, you send an email to them and you file a noise complaint. Contact your landlord as well.
Print out notes and put them up all over the hallways during early morning that someone is smoking on this floor which is seeping into other apartments in the hall and that a complaint has been filed as it’s a non-smoking complex, and that they will be fined.
Basically, be a squeaky wheel when it comes to this. I completely get where you’re coming from, I also made sure to move into a place that was smoke-free out of health concerns and I have dealt with this in the past. This is what worked for me. Ours also partied late into the night which I didn’t mind as much (but our other neighbours did) but the smoking was something I couldn’t put up with.
Haunt your landlord/leasing office. Do not stop complaining until something is done. Get a doctor’s note. If all else fails, you can break that lease since they are in violation of their duties.
You need to tell the manager or landlord that the neighbors are violating the no smoking rule. Of course you don’t want to move again, even to another apartment, but you have to emphasize that you moved there specifically because it was a no smoking building. There is also a thing called quiet enjoyment of your home and playing music after 10 or 11pm is a violation of that. They will either have to obey the rules or be evicted.
You aren’t there to make friends, you’re there to live peacefully and right now they’re disturbing the peace. Stop worrying what they think, because it sounds like you’ve signed a pretty strict lease, and you deserve to live with neighbors who follow the same rules as you. Especially since it’s threatening your health. Screw what your neighbors think of you
I’m firmly of the opinion that you need to push to be moved into another comparable unit, but in the interim, maybe purchase a HEPA filtering air unit for your bedroom?