How to Keep Smoke from Another Unit Out of my Apt.
Yes, this is another post complaining about cigarette smoke from a neighbor. I’ve read previous posts on this topic and, as this is obviously a touchy issue, I would like to try a different approach, if possible. I purchased a co-op that I (mostly) love in Park Slope a year ago. The building was built…
Yes, this is another post complaining about cigarette smoke from a neighbor. I’ve read previous posts on this topic and, as this is obviously a touchy issue, I would like to try a different approach, if possible.
I purchased a co-op that I (mostly) love in Park Slope a year ago. The building was built in 1920 and I am on the top floor. During the months before closing, one of the residents in the unit below mine was not around. Shortly after moving in, he returned and I learned for the first time that there was a chain smoker in the building and there is a significant amount of shared air between our units.
The extremity and the frequency of the cigarette (and, occasionally less legal substances) smoke is beyond anything I could have imagined possible. Several times daily, it is as though there is someone smoking in the room with me. Mornings, my place smells like an ashtray. Sometimes I can smell the tobacco on my clothes even when I am outside of my apartment.
I informed the president of the co-op who instructed me to take it up with the tenants, which I have done now many, many times. They are always very nice. Sometimes, the problem seems to get better for a short period (although it has never gone away). It always returns as bad as ever, prompting me to have yet another conversation that sometimes is somewhat effective, sometimes not.
To try and fix the issue, I put in two additional layers of flooring. I sealed all the corners with expanding foam and/or caulk. I plugged the outlets. I even spent over $1100 on an air purifier specifically designed to address cigarette smoke. Needless to say, this continues to be a problem or I wouldn’t be writing here.
To complicate this issue, I have also been getting severe headaches on a regular basis (3-4 a month, each lasting for a day or two). I cannot conclusively tie the headaches to the smoke, as I used to get about one of these headaches once every two or three years. Suddenly the headaches are a regular occurrence. A nurse told me that cigarette smoke can be a trigger for cluster headaches.
I have spent many days in the bedroom to avoid the smoke in the living room and nights on the couch in the living room to avoid smoke in the bedroom. Twice, in desperation, I moved my mattress to the kitchen and slept there to get away from the smoke.
Unfortunately, selling is not an option for me because of the state of the housing market and the building flip tax. Not to mention all the money I have already invested in this unit.
Just writing this down here, the situation feels over-the-top, and at times it is. But nothing has been exaggerated or distorted. I would love any suggestions about regarding my options. What do the people on Brownstoner suggest? Is there something I have overlooked?
saminthehood – I didn’t claim to be citing law – just copied a section and cited the cooperator article which talks about 235-b and the Poyck v. Bryant case.
Before attempting to go legal OP can read further and/or consult an attorney on whether he’d be likely to prevail.
The following are is citation of law – only web articles from law firms.
http://www.nyrealestatelawblog.com/2006/10/say_no_to_secondhand_smoke_1.html
and from another article –
As to Cooperatives, the proprietary lease will most likely dictate what, if anything, can be done about a shareholder smoking in an apartment and smoke emanating from the smoker’s apartment into other apartments. Many proprietary leases contain a section which states that “The Lessee shall not permit or suffer any unreasonable noises or anything which will interfere with the rights of other lessees or unreasonably annoy them.’ Although not specifically directed at second-hand smoke and although there are virtually no reported cases applying such sections to same, this section would seem to be appropriate fodder for addressing a complaint as to second-hand smoke.
Additionally, most proprietary leases contain a provision allowing for the termination of the lease on the basis of objectionable conduct repeated after notice. Certainly, the defining of smoking as objectionable conduct has not been placed before courts to date. However, with the adoption of appropriate procedures this may also prove an effect tool.
http://www.fingerandfinger.com/articles/06.11.pdf
Good luck.
OP, you came here for advice but so far you are the most reasonable person in this entire thread. I hope your neighbor isn’t like DeLepp or Rob, thinking chain-smoking is a God-given, constitutional right, that you will remove that last cigarette out of his cold, dead hand. I wouldn’t bet on it though.
A smoker is a dog-owner is a bicyclist is a driver: everybody thinks their poop doesn’t smell.
I would do a few things inside your apartment: put some expanding foam in all the holes on your common walls with Mr. Smoky, like electrical sockets and cable/phone jacks. Check for air flows with a candle around the moldings and use silicone and a small painting knife. Invest in proper air filter (or 2.)
> Anything Patsy Cline sings is worth listening to.
And that’s today’s takeaway. One more for the road:
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-wJNpWgss8
A very difficult situation. Smoking, at the level OP describes, is a terrible, nearly unbreakable addiction. I say this as an ex-chain smoker born into a haze of second-hand smoke, who watched my mother smoke her last cigarette six weeks before she died at age almost 100. She tried and tried and tried to quit but never could. And there were only three assisted living places in the city that allowed smokers — probably none by now.
That said, all sympathy to OP, who is quite clearly allergic to cigarette smoke in a terrible way. Such an allergy is very real — it happens to a lot of ex-smokers, especially ex-chain smokers, my husband among them. When he’s around cigarette smoke he has all the symptoms OP describes.
I think that Invisible 9:41 got it about right. OP has to act on his/her own behalf, in the measured way Invisible describes. There is one other argument for the co-op board: fire. Most home fires are NOT caused by smokers, but smoking-related fires have a very high fatality rate. And of course a fire in the smoker’s apartment will affect the whole building. I think OP has to fight for a smoke-free building — and the smoker has to find some acceptable place to smoke, away from nonsmokers. That may sound unfair, but it may also help the smoker move to the next stage: locking himself in a rubber room for three weeks until the worst is over and then never lighting up again. It can be done. Millions have.
I have the same problem except someone is smoking in our HALLWAY STAIRCASE. This is clearly illegal and I have been neighborly about it, posting signs asking them to stop, that the smoke is in our kids’ room, that it’s not legal, etc. But they tear the signs down. To add insult to injury, they leave their cigarette butts on the stairs. I’m on the condo board but when I complain of the issue, no one knows how to resolve it except to catch him red-handed (but he smokes sometime around 2-3AM and sitting in the hallway waiting for him to pop out in the middle of the night isn’t exactly appealing). Any ideas on how to fix this problem?
people, we are not just talking about comfort/quality of life, which are indeed important issues and protected by the coop bylaws, etc. we are actually talking about serious health issues – the Gov couldn’t ever have banned perfume, or stinky food, or anything else from bars, restaurants, and other public spaces, etc – but they did bar smoking. WHY? because second hand smoke has been proven beyond a doubt to cause cancer, in big numbers.
“Secondhand smoke is responsible for an estimated 3, 400 lung cancer deaths and 46,000 deaths due to heart disease among non-smokers each year. SHS is also responsible for lower respiratory tract infections in an estimated 150,000 to 300,000 children each year.”
http://www.cancer.gov/newscenter/entertainment/tipsheet/secondhand-smoke
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Tobacco/ETS
this is a very serious and a very real problem.
For breach of 235-b, you’ll need to show alot more than what OP posted. You’ll need, at least, a number of others to attest to the same level of disruption. (I hate when people cite to web articles for a statement of the law). It will be a losing battle. From what OP states, she is the only one who is having such a bad reaction – if the entire building felt equally strongly, the Board would take action. My SO cannot handle street noise when in the room facing that street, even though I, and others in the building, don’t have as strong a reaction. My friend cannot handle the noise from the neighbor’s yard, though others in the building facing the yard dont mind. We live in a city of millions. There will be smokers, dogs, little scampering children, piano players etc etc. If something bothers only a few, you just got to suck it up. Or leave.
Anything Patsy Cline sings is worth listening to.
I didn’t see any undermining or overstepping the mark until rob joined in. Just sayin’.