Smell from neighbours cooking

djimi

Somewhat of a variation of the "noisy neighbour" problem...!

I live in an apartment building; 18 apartments in 3 sections of 6. One of my neighbours in my section is fond of cooking food which emits the most pungent and disgusting smells, for most of the day. Its not uncommon to walk into the building hall at any time between mid afternoon and nighttime and be met with a strong smell of something cooking. The last couple of days its been particularly bad; usually its only in the building halls but its starting to be noticable in our apartment. At the moment there is the smell of what appears to be rancid fish cooking.

I know my best course of action would be to talk with them, and when I find out who exactly it is I most likely will (Im not living here very long and dont know any of my neighbours), but what rights do I actually have with this issue? If they are not prepared to stop doing whatever it is that they are doing have the management company any powers to sort the problem out?

kippy

djimi wrote: »

Somewhat of a variation of the "noisy neighbour" problem...!

I live in an apartment building; 18 apartments in 3 sections of 6. One of my neighbours in my section is fond of cooking food which emits the most pungent and disgusting smells, for most of the day. Its not uncommon to walk into the building hall at any time between mid afternoon and nighttime and be met with a strong smell of something cooking. The last couple of days its been particularly bad; usually its only in the building halls but its starting to be noticable in our apartment. At the moment there is the smell of what appears to be rancid fish cooking.

I know my best course of action would be to talk with them, and when I find out who exactly it is I most likely will (Im not living here very long and dont know any of my neighbours), but what rights do I actually have with this issue? If they are not prepared to stop doing whatever it is that they are doing have the management company any powers to sort the problem out?

Havent actually heard of this one. Its another problem with apartments that I hadnt considered.

I assume the neighbour could possible use/service their extractor fans, which may help to resolve the problem.

kravmaga

Maybe the smell has nowhere to go, i.e. neighbour may not have an extractor hood/fan over cooker/hob with outflow connection pipe to exterior wall.

There is little you can do as cooking is not a breach of the House Rules;)

Your management company rep/ point of contat should have issued you with a copy of the House Rules so you know what is allowed and what isn't

Victor

You are still entitled to peaceable enjoyment of your own residence.

Perhaps some seals on you and their apartment doors? €20 from all DIY stores.

Arthurdaly

I doubt the persons are stewing up a pair of unused underpants? I hate the smell of fish, am I gonna knock up my neighbour to ask them to change their habits to suit me?

They are paying rent/mortgage and are entitled to cook whatever they want, suck it up?

djimi

I suspect it is a problem with their extractor fan alright; our kitchens do not have windows and generally dont have great ventilation, so if the fan isnt working then that would certainly explain why the smell is so strong.

I will check out getting some door seals and see if that makes a difference. You mean the sticky stuff you put around the door frame yeah?

Generally speaking is there rules governing this kind of thing? Theres nothing in the house rules that I know of, but its not really the kind of things Id expect to see in them to be honest!

djimi

Arthurdaly wrote: »

I doubt the persons are stewing up a pair of unused underpants? I hate the smell of fish, am I gonna knock up my neighbour to ask them to change their habits to suit me?

They are paying rent/mortgage and are entitled to cook whatever they want, suck it up?

Thats very easy to say, but Im also paying rent, and Im entitled to walk into my building without having to cover my nose or hold my breath. This is not a normal cooking smell; if it was something like curry or deep fat fryer oil or whatever I could live with it, but this is much worse. Imagine making a stew out of two month old fish and youll start to get the picture...

aphex™

One place I used to work in had a few apartments let out. One of the tenants ran a Chinese restaurant from the kitchen of one of the apartments. Obviously they were operating a take out business. The fumes were destroying the place so they were got rid of fairly easily.

Anyway, you think any of the above is applicable to your situation try contacting the food safety authority or the landlord if you can track him down.

Graces7

djimi wrote: »

Thats very easy to say, but Im also paying rent, and Im entitled to walk into my building without having to cover my nose or hold my breath. This is not a normal cooking smell; if it was something like curry or deep fat fryer oil or whatever I could live with it, but this is much worse. Imagine making a stew out of two month old fish and youll start to get the picture...

Try HSE? Environmental Health Officer. I am sure it will not be the first time they have had this kind of thing.

Many years ago we lived in a council flat where the bathroooms had no windows; the air conditioner would switch on with the light. SOme of the smells we got were...interesting tosay the least.. Like when an old man further down had died and been there many days.

If there is a closes internal system like that then this will hapoen and no, you should not have to put up with it...

Maybe someone making glue etc?

dory

This was on Joe Duffy a few weeks ago! I can't remember the outcome of that but you may be able to find it in his podcasts (twas about one month ago).

And, it was in a housing estate on his show (to the previous poster who said it's another issue with apartments). But maybe you can see what happened to the people complaining to Joe?

djimi

Cheers Dory, Ill see if I can find that.

mikemac

OP, subscribe to the liveline podcasts

You want October 14th and June 22nd

Good advice there from Dory, might get you some solutions from people in similar situations

latenia

Is the neighbour Nigerian or other West-African? There's one fish dish they're into that brings tears to my eyes and makes me retch from the fumes. No domestic extractor fan will help with this so you'll have to ask them not to cook it and go to their landlord or the management company if they refuse to stop.

tomcollins97

What was the general advise from Joe Duffy?

We have similar issues with Indian cooking - especially on Sundays mornings. It seems they start frying onions and garlic very very early!

In our own apartment we use an air ioniser from Lakeland that works a treat (about 20 quid) and stops our own kitchen smells getting into the rest of our apartment - I only wish other people would use them

woolymammoth

Arthurdaly wrote: »

I doubt the persons are stewing up a pair of unused underpants?

i used to live across the road from some french guys in college. One of the girls that lived with them told us one day she came in to find underpants being soaked in a baking tin! :eek:

timmythesheep

Ok, I know I am dragging up and old thread but the smell of frying onions, garlic, and spice in our apt tonight is rotten. When we called down to the neighbours there were 4 men cooking in a tiny kitchen at 11.30pm. They apologised, said they had a "program to full for early morning'. To me that sounds like they are carrying out a business from the apt. doing commercial cooking.

Is there anything we can do to stop this as the smell is awful

Victor

Talk to them. Make sure the use ventilation.

If that doesn't work, talk to the landlord.