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There’s a story bouncing around at the moment about a guy on the North Shore, a cancer victim who may be forced to sell his unit because residents in apartments below him are heavy smokers who insist on their “right” to blow their toxic fumes into his home.
According to the story, passed on by Flat Chat reader Rachel, this gentleman was diagnosed with cancer last September and is stuck at home. His problem comes from a “massive chain-smoker” who smokes constantly on his balcony below.
But his strata manager has told him the by-laws covering his unit block would not be changed to ban smoking on balconies. However, if my reading of the Strata Act is right, the poor sod doesn’t need a by-law; there’s a state law that already protects his right to breathe fresh air.
Section 117 of the Strata Schemes Management Act says owners and occupiers may not “cause a nuisance or hazard to the occupier of any other lot.” The same section says residents may not “interfere unreasonably with the use or enjoyment of any other lot by the occupier of the lot.”
Can smoking on balconies be a nuisance or a hazard? The Government thinks so, with bans on smoking on beaches and at sports venues as well as cafes, restaurants and bars. And that’s before you even get into lit cigarette ends being dropped on to neighbours’ property.
Can you stop people smoking on their own property? According to a ruling on this a couple of years ago, you can even stop them smoking INSIDE their homes if it causes a problem for other residents.
Sadly this guy has neither the time nor energy to fight this in the courts. Surely there’s a strata lawyer out there who will take on this battle pro bono … and maybe create a legal precedent that stops balcony smokers polluting everyone’s homes except their own.
JimmyT will be answering your questions live on James Valentine’s radio show on ABC 702 on Tuesday 25th.
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Just discovered last week that pizza boxes ARE allowed in recycling – as long as they don't still have bits of pizza in them. One less thing for me to grumble about.
Well, there ya go! I guess I learnt something today. Cheers for the heads up.
What about bits of cheese stuck to the box? Unfortunately if left lying in a garbage room, greasy pizza boxes attract vermin.
Drew, I found putting a polite and anonymous note on the wall in the garbage room stopped the naughty neighbours from leaving pizza boxes, recycling in plastic bags and other non-recycable items.
In regards to the smoking issue we have a similar problem in our large inner city block.
There is one particular lot that we keep having issues with. The apartment is one floor below ours and one apartment across, not directly underneath. The previous owner had parties in their courtyard and apartment every night. The whole building had issues with him! The new owner does that and more and smokes directly in the corner of their large courtyard, under our balcony.
He comes outside to smoke, his friends smoke and while they smoke they chat loudly, usually on the phone, sometimes waking us at 3am or 6am.
Because we had such a nightmare with the previous owner, we decided not to worsen the situation by approaching the new owner directly and left it to our hopeless building management.
We have also improved the noisy party situation by approaching the local police Sargeant.
Tonight when the stench of cigarettes filled our lounge room I went to close the door and the neighbour looked up at me. I politley asked if they could please smoke away from our apartment as the smoke fills our apartment and stinks. They replied “I can smoke wherever I like on my balcony”.
I suppose I expected that response from someone who behaves like they do. We hear all their phone conversations when they chat on their mobile in their courtyard, using foul language. The neighbour in the opposite block hears it all too!
We are constantly closing all our windows and balcony door to escape the smoke as well as the loud conversations. Turning on the air-conditioning is not ideal as the air-conditioning unit is noisy, it's not comfortable to have air-conditioning on all the time and we like to have our windows and door open in summer. It's fruturating having to open and close the windows all day and until late at night.
The smoke stinks out our apartment, we both have asthma and it is just plain revolting.
We have never had an issue with cigarette smoke here before and now it is escalating.
Our strata laws state residents may not “interfere unreasonably with the use or enjoyment of any other lot by the occupier of the lot”.
Gettting our strata manager to take any action is like getting water from a rock!
Recently other neighbours on the floor below have been complaining about ciggarette butts littering their courtyard, burning holes through outdoor furniture. Funny thing is they smoke too!
As balconies are common property, can smoking be banned by adding a new strata law? Does this apply to courtyards as well?
I accept that you have to expect some noise from living in this area. Police sirens, loud drunks walking past, the odd scream, I dont mind that at all but this is just getting out of hand.
Jimmy can you recommend any great building mananagement companies and strata management? Ours are going out to tender very soon.
UPDATE: Discovered cigarette butts littered around the pool and spa on Sunday night. Some people are ferals! What's next?!
Re smoking: I'm staggered at the number of people who think it is Ok to inflict their own self-destructive behaviour on others. Smoking is banned in many places because it is injurious to health. If my neighbours want to poison themselves, that is up to them as long as no-one else is affected, (apart from the health care costs to all of us when they do get sick), but I greatly object to having to breathe in the toxic fumes from their balcony. I value my health and try to look after it. There may be some things I cannot control, such as breathing in traffic fumes, but I expect to be able to safeguard my health in my own home. I choose not to sit with smokers outside restaurants and avoid smoke wherever I can. Why should I not be able to do so in my own home? It is NOT Ok to say “live and let live” and “strata living involves give and take” in this instance. Breathing in even second-hand smoke has been proven to harm health. No-one should have to put up with this selfish behaviour.
Chloe said:
Re smoking: I'm staggered at the number of people who think it is Ok to inflict their own self-destructive behaviour on others. Smoking is banned in many places because it is injurious to health. If my neighbours want to poison themselves, that is up to them as long as no-one else is affected, (apart from the health care costs to all of us when they do get sick), but I greatly object to having to breathe in the toxic fumes from their balcony. I value my health and try to look after it. There may be some things I cannot control, such as breathing in traffic fumes, but I expect to be able to safeguard my health in my own home. I choose not to sit with smokers outside restaurants and avoid smoke wherever I can. Why should I not be able to do so in my own home? It is NOT Ok to say “live and let live” and “strata living involves give and take” in this instance. Breathing in even second-hand smoke has been proven to harm health. No-one should have to put up with this selfish behaviour.
If it makes you feel any better the amount of taxes they pay for outweighs the costs associated with smoking related illness! I guess the thing is I do subscribe to the live and let live theory. The impacts from secondhand smoke outdoors is pretty minimal – internal in a smoky room it’s a different story – and it is really only long term exposure in large amounts that has any impact. I agree – I sit inside at restaurants (except in my local area – Mosman council has a smoking ban within 10m of outdoor dining areas, good thing it is too) but I also can see that smokers are reaching leper status, and if they can’t smoke within their own property, or on the streets, or at parks, then where can they smoke. I don’t like the smell, I think it’s a waste of money, and I hate the impacts butts have on the environment, but I will also defend an adults right to do what they want to their own body.
I’m sure if we could work out a way of fixing the massive budget black hole that would result when smoking is outlawed then it wouldn’t be an issue, but until then I think we are all just going to have to put up with it. It is interesting that the rates of lung cancer is higher amongst non-smokers in an urban area than in a rural area, so I wonder if that air pollution has more of an impact than anything else?
I find closing the door for 5 minutes when the neighbours are having a cig works ok for me, but then they aren’t chain smokers either so I might be lucky in that respect.