The most crucial part of dealing with a nuisance smoker is documenting your situation in the most possible detail. Understand that unless there is a specific law that deals with your particular situation, it may take several weeks or months for you to accumulate sufficient evidence and generate enough response to resolve, or at least partially resolve a nuisance smoking problem. It will also take time for the reports you make later on to be received and responded to, and you may not see any action taken for some time, so the main thing is to be patient but vigilant.
Secondly it is important to do most of your dealing with the smoker through third parties if your initial contact fails. Keep in mind that chronic smokers are effectively drug addicts and may react unreasonably to any requests to reduce the effect of their smoke. It is important for you to make the initial request to reduce the smoke, but make sure someone is videoing you or that you have a digital sound recorder in your pocket for safety purposes. If the smoker reacts offensively or threateningly, then simply Smile and walk away – whatever you do, do not create an increased level of conflict but rather keep the situation as cool as possible.
Start by taking a log of all activity that affects you and your household personally. In other words, only document things that illustrate how you have been harmed. Don’t go out of your way to infringe on the privacy of a neighbour, but rather be impersonal in your note-taking and simply document the facts as you are affected. In your log, note events in their simplest terms, for example:“At 10.15am June 3rd, we smelt strong smoke in our bathroom and bedroom. The smell was quite strong and when I looked outside there were two cigarettes burning in the neighbour’s ashtray outside, but there was nobody there.”
Do this for a period of weeks. Take photos in your house and on your property (within your boundary) to illustrate the extent of the smoking problem. It is not advisable to actually film the smoker unless they have passed inside your property’s boundary. Take video of yourself on a camera or smartphone and relate problems as they occur: “We were trying to have breakfast this morning but the smell in our house is unbearable. I woke up with a blocked nose and headache again this morning which has not happened to me before we had the nuisance smoker move in. As you can see here, there is actually a plume of smoke coming over our fence...”
Try to document the situation as much as possible without the neighbour’s knowledge if they have refused your request to reduce their smoke or if they have rejected your request for them to smoke on an opposite side of their property. If you have children that toss and turn at night and complain about the “stinky air” then record them candidly. Under no circumstances should you make false reports or get children or other occupants of your house to offer false reports.
If the neighbours smoke from 8pm to 10pm and by 10pm the smoke in your house is intolerable and unsafe, this can be supported by your log or photo and video evidence, and the neighbour will not be able to deny the reports.
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