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Imagine renting an apartment in a non-smoking building. What would you do if your next door neighbor was smoking? Would you ignore the situation or report him to the landlord?

In this story, one tenant is in this situation, and the smoking is so bad that he can smell it all over his apartment. Yet, the landlord refuses to believe him.

He finds the whole situation unfair and isn’t sure how to get things to change.

Let’s read all about it.

Tenant will not stop smoking inside, violating lease, and landlord wants me to leave

My building has 16 apartments.

The only floor that ever stinks is mine, from the guy I share a wall with.

I’ve been at this place for 4 months now, and this has been an ongoing issue.

I texted the landlord telling him I genuinely don’t have intentions of getting anyone in trouble, but my apartment and the floor reek of cigarettes and it’s really strong.

He tried to report the neighbor anonymously.

There was a lady that moved in to the apartment across from his not long after I moved in, so I was assuming (my fault honestly) my complaint would be anonymous and the smoking neighbor wouldn’t be sure who complained.

Landlord threw me under the bus, and the guy said it’s not him smoking.

In my bedroom, there is a door for a fire escape, but it opens to a small hallway first. He also has a door, so there is a small hallway in between our fire escape doors and the smoke goes right through the cracks.

I do have a draft stopper but it can’t block everything. The stench is very obviously coming from his apartment and it reeks outside both of his doors.

The landlord wasn’t very helpful.

The landlord responded and said the guy said it’s not him, “so let me know when you know more.”

I said no, it’s definitely this apartment.

The landlord lives on the property and was there that day, and told me his (the landlord) father recently passed away and he’s dealing with a lot. If it happens again, let him know and he’ll go up and check it out.

Of course it happened again, but I didn’t want to bother the landlord due to his circumstances. I held off, but it got to a point where this guy is smoking all of the time now to be spiteful and it’s disgusting.

This sounds awful!

I can’t sleep in my bedroom because he’ll smoke in the middle of the night.

Even my kitchen pantry will stink and cause my living room to smell.

So I’m not always safe from it even sleeping on my couch.

I texted the landlord a 2nd time.

The landlord wants proof.

He called me, said that he just talked to the guy and he said he doesn’t smoke (I’ve definitely seen him smoking by his car) and that he’s lived there for 14 years with no complaints.

The landlord very rudely asked me when my lease is up, and how long I’ve been here. He then acknowledged that there’s no smoking in the building and fire escape, said there isn’t anything he can do (he still never came up to my apt), and told me to take a picture of neighbor smoking for proof.

He followed that up with, if this is a “quality of life issue” and “I’m not happy,” then I can break my lease.

I was genuinely taken aback.

The problem is ongoing.

That was maybe a month ago.

The other night, I went to bed early and was awoken in the middle of the night by his smoke and I really can’t take it anymore.

I politely knocked on his door a couple of times, and he didn’t answer.

I quietly said (from a distance) can you please stop smoking inside, and went back into my apartment.

Nothing has changed.

Naturally, that did not help.

I figured it was worth a shot trying to have a conversation, really my last effort at being cordial.

Since he didn’t answer his door, I ended up complaining to the landlord for a 3rd time. I told him I’m not interested in breaking my lease, and I respectfully request that he addresses this with the neighbor.

I got another classic response of, “let me know when it happens again and I’ll try to come up.”

He doesn’t think any of this is fair.

This is getting ridiculous.

I work very hard and it took me a long time to find a nice/affordable apartment in a small town. I have put so much work and effort moving and creating a home on the 4th floor.

It’s beyond frustrating that the landlord literally does not care.

And now I can’t feel comfortable in my apartment for the obvious fact of this guy won’t stop smoking, and I feel like the landlord will definitely give me my 30 days at the end of my lease so there’s a lot of uncertainty and stress for me.

He’s not sure what to do.

I pretty much always dread going home now.

I really don’t know what else to do. Fire Marshal? If I call the Fire Marshal, what are they able to do?

My concern is that they and the landlord need to give notice before entering someone’s apartment. That would give the guy more than enough time to put his stuff in his car and air out the place.

What do I do now?

What he needs is proof. He mentioned seeing the neighbor smoke before. He needs to set up a camera and record him.

Let’s see how Reddit responded.

This person hates cigarette smoke too.

Another person shares some advice to get rid of the smell.

One person thinks the smoker is friends with the landlord.

Another person thinks OP needs to prepare to move out.

Clearly, unless he has evidence like pictures or videos, nothing is going to change. The landlord doesn’t seem to care. OP either needs to move or gather evidence. Personally, I’d move. Cigarette smoke is awful.