I need some advice

[tracilynnie]

OK so when we moved into this apartment we were smokers and on the lease it states that this is a non-smoking building. We never argued and would go outside to stand on the fire escape and smoke away.. Well we quit in August and haven't had to go outside and all is well. Now our apartment reeks of cigarette smoke especially in the kids rooms because our downstairs neighbors smoke inside.

Most of the concerns we have brought up to our landlord have been more or less blown off and it appears as this one will be as well. What do I do? I can't have my kids sleeping in a room that smells so bad it makes ME gag and candles and incense only work so much. We have discussed moving but we're stuck in a lease even though there seems to be some violations in that end..

I'm really frustrated about this. We made the switch to ecigs and that's great and I don't expect everyone to jump on our bandwagon but rules are rules and it seems the downstairs neighbors get to break them all..

 

[Dana A]

Submit a letter to your land lord in writing asking him to deal with the problem. Usually if you take the time to write a letter they take you seriously. Let him or her know that you will be wanting them to let you out of your lease early if you don't find a resolution to breathing cig smoke in your non smoking apt. I bet that will do it. Good luck.

 

[tracilynnie]

The guy actually asked about my ecigs too and I handed him a bunch of business cards including one for this site.. I'm half tempted to take my old firefly kit downstairs and let him borrow it and explain that if he feels the need to smoke inside to use that instead and only go outside if he really needs to smoke LOL

Edit: It IS like -10 outside right now and I can understand that standing in that sucks...

 

[Paulette]

Totally agree with Dana above!

Hopefully the lease that your neighbors signed also had the same no-smoking provision in it!

 

[tracilynnie]

Totally agree with Dana above!

Hopefully the lease that your neighbors signed also had the same no-smoking provision in it!

It does, I just asked her LOL

 

[samazon]

As above. Write a letter of complaint - my ex had mold growing in his windowsill, called his landlord several times to no avail. The day after they received a polite letter informing them that if they didn't fix the problem he would be forced to take some sort of action, the problem was taken care of.

I use email to communicate with my landlord, because it's less formal than a letter but still holds the "you knew about this on X date" factor. There are building codes and laws being placed in certain regions that prohibit smoking in multi-family dwellings. You should check your local laws if your landlord does nothing or threatens to not let you break your lease without penalty.

 

[tracilynnie]

Well we're discussing this via text with time stamps so I'm hoping that works as far as logging it..

 

[Dana A]

I bet it will. I feel for you. I called the cops on my downstairs neighbors for child abuse in my very 1st apt when I was 18. About 3 weeks later I followed my usual routine and stayed overnight with my cousin to take care of her kids the next morning. When I returned home the next afternoonI had been robbed and vandalized blind. Anything they didn't take they knifed up. Guess who ended up being the robbers?

 

[tracilynnie]

I bet it will. I feel for you. I called the cops on my downstairs neighbors for child abuse in my very 1st apt when I was 18. About 3 weeks later I followed my usual routine and stayed overnight with my cousin to take care of her kids the next morning. When I returned home the next afternoonI had been robbed and vandalized blind. Anything they didn't take they knifed up. Guess who ended up being the robbers?

OMG that's horrible!