Neighbor's smoking is invading my apartment!

[Ad_Astra]

I'm not quite sure how to go about dealing with this so I put it up the the E-hell Wise Ones.
I moved into my apartment in September and I've had absolutely no problems up until now. Pertinent info: next door neighbor and I have a shared ventilation system that is in my bathroom/closet area and somewhere in her apartment.
She (or someone else in her apt) has started smoking--a lot. To the point where I open my closet door (to walk through to my bathroom...weird setup, it's an old building) and the bathroom and closet REEKS of cigarettes (and other...smokeables).
I really despise the smell of smoke and I'm afraid the odor will settle into my clothes, towels, etcetera. It's not a non-smoking building (as evidenced by me having to literally scrape black and yellow smoke residue off the windows when I first moved into my place) and my landlords aren't really the greatest...usually you have to do something yourself for it to get done.
What should I say to this girl (if anything)? I've never met or seen her but she is ALWAYS screaming at someone in her apartment for anything you could image and doesn't seem to be the most stable so you can imagine why I don't want to just go knock on the door.
Help?

[Lisbeth]

Yikes.
I guess your best course of action might be to mail her a letter by certified mail with a copy to your landlords asking her to have the smoking stop.

If that doesn't work, you might need to get fans and air fresheners or even move again if it gets really bad.

[Ad_Astra]

I'll try doing that--I really don't want to move though because the place is (relatively) cheap and close to my school and work. Also, the lease doesn't end until this upcoming September--so I can just hope that she moves out before then...

[MineralDiva]

Oh dear...  That's a tough one.

If your landlord isn't "the greatest," then you may not get much satisfaction there.  But I would try anyway, first.

I would not approach the unstable neighbor.

I would invest in some potpourri and air-fresheners...as well as a newspaper, to check the classified ads for a new apartment.

Though, it seems like you knew there were smokers in the building, when you rented there.  The time to decide if that would bother you, was prior to signing the lease.

That being said, however, I wouldn't appreciate my apartment smelling like the corner bar either.  Is there anything in your lease that prohibits smoking in the apartment?  If so, you may have some recourse.

[emeraldsage85]

Maybe you could block that part of the ventilation system with something?

[Ad_Astra]

Though, it seems like you knew there were smokers in the building, when you rented there.  The time to decide if that would bother you, was prior to signing the lease.

That being said, however, I wouldn't appreciate my apartment smelling like the corner bar either.  Is there anything in your lease that prohibits smoking in the apartment?  If so, you may have some recourse.

1) I knew there were smokers in the building but I never had any issues with it up until recently (as in the smell just started in the last two weeks after living there for over 3 months). Basically, what people do in their own apartments is up to them--I just don't want my place or clothes to smell like someone else's habit.
The window thing I didn't discover until a few days after moving my stuff in and decided to clean the windows..the paper towels were literally black and yellow after swiping them over the glass. There was no smoke smell (they repaint the walls and redo the hardwood between residents)--they just hadn't cleaned the glass.

2) There is nothing in my lease prohibiting smoking. I've talked to other people in my building whose neighbors smoke and they don't have similar problems with smell coming through the vents so I'm thinking that it is just a quirk of the vents between my bathroom and her apartment.

[VorFemme]

Can you either block that part of the ventilation system or get some kind of activated charcoal filter to put over it to try to CONTROL the odor?

I feel for you - although I don't smoke - I went to visit a friend (not a close friend - she was the mother of one of my DD's friends from school) ONCE at her house.  She was rearranging the furniture after fifteen years of living in the house.

The carpet HAD been pale blue - as you could tell from the patches where the upholstered love seat and couch had been sitting for the last fifteen years.  She had taken down some wall hangings and photos to rearrange, too.  The walls had been off-white.  

Due to the nicotine residue EVERYWHERE, things had a yellow-brown cast to them and the odor was enough to choke on.  I could not come up with a polite way to say "I can't breathe in here due to the smoke" but I never went back into that house.  I stopped by on my way home from picking up groceries so that I *HAD* to leave in three minutes or less to get the milk, ice cream, and such HOME (she lived half a mile from our house).

I still ran into her at school, the group, and she came by a couple of times - but as my house was "no smoking" she went outside to get her fix.  

I remember thinking that the only easy way to get that place CLEAN again was going to be burn it down and build a new house.  I suppose live steam might have worked - but there was no place to drain the gunk that would have come pouring off the walls to..........and it would have been gunk..........**shudder**

[Bijou]

I'm not quite sure how to go about dealing with this so I put it up the the E-hell Wise Ones.
I moved into my apartment in September and I've had absolutely no problems up until now. Pertinent info: next door neighbor and I have a shared ventilation system that is in my bathroom/closet area and somewhere in her apartment.
She (or someone else in her apt) has started smoking--a lot. To the point where I open my closet door (to walk through to my bathroom...weird setup, it's an old building) and the bathroom and closet REEKS of cigarettes (and other...smokeables).
I really despise the smell of smoke and I'm afraid the odor will settle into my clothes, towels, etcetera. It's not a non-smoking building (as evidenced by me having to literally scrape black and yellow smoke residue off the windows when I first moved into my place) and my landlords aren't really the greatest...usually you have to do something yourself for it to get done.
What should I say to this girl (if anything)? I've never met or seen her but she is ALWAYS screaming at someone in her apartment for anything you could image and doesn't seem to be the most stable so you can imagine why I don't want to just go knock on the door.
Help?

That doesn't sound right.  If it is coming from that apartment, why are those odors leaking into your side?  Maybe it is malfunctioning.  In any case, it seems to be interfering with what you can reasonably expect in your own home (no odors from another person bathroom) and it seems like it is time to get the landlord in to rectify the situation.  And if he balks, do you have a tenent association where you can get advise?  Other option is to move, but sometimes that isn't feasible.  Yes, you are right to not go over to the neighbors, considering that you feel it wouldn't be wise to do so.  
This page was interesting and maybe you can talk to your landlord about some of the solutions these people discuss to see if they are safe to do and whether or not he'll do it for you.
http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/apt/msg1022024310411.html?12

[Ad_Astra]

Maybe you could block that part of the ventilation system with something?

I'm working on maintenence to come up and close it (it is literally IN my shower..I should post pictures) and has rusted/stuck the lever to "open".

ReneeG--Do you know where I could find one? The only kind I've ever seen are the smallish ones that you put on a covered cat box. And I wonder if the humidity would have an adverse effect on the filter?
 

[MineralDiva]

It does sound then, like your ventilation system is malfunctioning.  Definitely a job for maintenance.

I hope you're able to get it resolved! 

[Suze]

plastic and duct tape come to mind -- you can get clear duct tape now you know.

[sempronialou]

I was in a similar situation.  The neighbor below me smoked like a chimney and the smoke smell infiltrated my apartment.  There wasn't a whole lot I could do.  He was a nice man.  I just didn't like the smoke and there wasn't much I could do.  I just bided my time until my lease was up and moved to a different place.  I really loved that apartment, but it had it's drawbacks separate from the smoke issue.  The next place turned out to be even better.  

It sounds to me like the best option since the landlord seems unreliable is to get a good air purifier and start looking for a new place.  That is probably why it's so cheap.  There is an ozone spray that is supposed to help eliminate smoke odors.  Unfortunately, you can't really make someone stop smoking in their private residence unless the place is designated non-smoking.  I don't know what else to tell you.

[EvilAlice]

I guess your best course of action might be to mail her a letter by certified mail with a copy to your landlords asking her to have the smoking stop.

I disagree.  For one thing, she has no business making demands of her neighbor and a certified letter copied to the landlord looks like a demand.  All this will do is irritate the neighbor and really, it's not the neighbor's problem.

This is an issue for the landlord.  You simply tell them what's going on, see what they can do about it, if anything, and then go from there as to what your options are.  I thought that places billed as private residences had to each have their own ventilation, but I'm no expert.  It just seems to me like that would be required.

Did you know when you moved in that you would be sharing a ventilation system?  That would be awful.  Even if it wasn't smoking, who wants to smell when their neighbor cooks fish or curry or something for dinner?  Or what if you have a neighbor who likes to burn incense, or candles, or anything like that.  It just doesn't seem very "private".

[Jaywalker]

this is not a 'neighbor' problem and no letters should be sent to the neighbor -- it is a landlord/ building problem

odors from one apartment should not be leaking this much into another -- there is clearly something wrong with the ventilation system

the OP might approach the neighbor with the problem 'with the ventilation' and its impact on her -- and do some problem solving with the neighbor -- perhaps if she didn't smoke in the bathroom or kept that door shut, it would cut down on the leak -- or they could explore ways to track down just how the smoke is leaking through -- and try to do what it takes to prevent this

this should all be approached as 'a problem with the building' and with the attitude that 'of course she has the right to smoke in her own apartment' --

with or without information about where the leak is -- approach the landlord about a problem with the ventilation system that needs to be fixed. -- and be persistent -- about following up

 

[Lisbeth]

Sorry, but I disagree with going to the landlord without trying to get some resolution directly from the neighbor first, but for physical safety purposes I think writing her a letter rather than approaching her in person is a better way to handle the situation.

The idea of writing a letter to the neighbor is simply to *ask* her to do something about it, and the certified copies are simply to make sure that she gets the letter and the landlord gets it, so nobody can say later "We didn't get your message."

But before doing anything else, I would give the neighbor a chance to deal with it herself, and *then* I'd go to the landlord.  The neighbor could complain that the OP should have come to her first rather than going over her head, and I think it would be a valid complaint.

Not only that, the OP might need documentation of the transaction for legal purposes.