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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Posts
    2

    Default Pot Smoking Neighbors - Any Recourse?

    Hi all,

    My wife and I have been living in an apartment complex in CA for around 7 years now and really have never had a problem. Recently a tenant moved in below us that smokes pot. Normally I really wouldn't care except that we have our recently born 5 month old daughter here and the smell can be pervasive. On one occassion I actually had to remove my daughter from the apartment because it smelled so bad.

    So I formally complained to the landlord and she polled the neighbors around us and determined that it was the people living right below us. She actually went as far as to knock on their door and tell them that "whatever they had been doing" was affecting the neighbors around them as we all share venting. But she stated that she didn't dare accuse them of smoking pot for fear of being sued.

    I've recently confronted them about it and they continue to smoke on a daily basis. If I call the police is there anything they can even do under the law to stop this? Does anyone have any advice on ho to escalate this? I've started documenting dates and times......but beyond that I'm afraid the police simply won't come for an issue like this or won't be able to stop it even if they do. Is there anything else I can do (aside from move)?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Posts
    563

    Default Re: Pot Smoking Neighbors - Any Recourse?

    have you spoken to them?
    tell them what you told us.

    you have a shared venting system?
    so if you cook onions it blows onions into other peoples air?
    more than one apt?

    it might be hard to get a warrant how can you prove what intake vent is supplying the smoke.

    your guessing its them (and may be right)

    tell me more about the system?

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    Behind a Desk
    Posts
    98,846

    Default Re: Pot Smoking Neighbors - Any Recourse?

    You can notify the police, and see what they can do.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Posts
    2

    Default Re: Pot Smoking Neighbors - Any Recourse?

    @TheAmazingChan: Let me clarify. We live in an apartment unit that has upper and lower apartments (one set on each side of a staircase). I share the vents with the apartment below me only. I suspect it might be old central air vents (our landlord doesn't have air conditioning anymore, though). The two apartments on the other side share their venting. I can't speak for whether or not my neighbors can smell our cooking, but I would suspect not. You're right it might be hard to prove it's them, but I could smell it coming from their place the night I confronted them in person and asked them to move it somewhere else or find a way to make it not enter my place.

    @Mr. Knowitall: Good call. Initially I was afraid that they'd dismiss it. So my wife and I went down to the station and asked them what we should do in the event we considered calling them. The cop on duty said to definitely do it and that they'd definitely come out. So that's cool. I think I'll complain to the landlord one more time so I don't look like a jerk and let that serve as my notice that if it continues the cops will be involved.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Posts
    250

    Default Re: Pot Smoking Neighbors - Any Recourse?

    Just go down there and talk to them. It will be more trouble if you go behind there backs and do it. Most neighbors are understanding especially if your baby is at stake.
    Go downstairs now and polity talk to them. Tell them this talk is between me and you etc..

  6. #6

    Default Re: Pot Smoking Neighbors - Any Recourse?

    I doubt that any amount of talking to the offending tenants will work. They probably feel that they can do anything they want in their own home or apartment. The problem is that any residential lease is subject implicitly to the rule that the apartment is being used for its lawful intended use. Unlawful drug use is not a lawful use. So the offending tenant is breaching the lease, but does the landlord realize or even believe this?

    On the other side, the landlord is breaching his/her lease with you because it is also implied in every residential lease that the unit is habitable and a high level of pot smoke may make the unit uninhabitable, especially when the health of young children are involved. There is also the theory that the smell is offensive, so that it violates the covenant of quiet enjoyment, whether it is implicit or explicit to the lease.

    You have a tough situation here because it may involve the eviction of the offending tenants and getting a landlord to go that far for something so relatively minor may be a tough sell.

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