Incessant smoke from next door

My freehold cottage is close to my neighbour He is an alcoholic who smokes all day without stopping and well into the night
The smoke comes into my house.
He just does not smoking stop ever except between midnight and 7am and doesn't move from the front of his house so it just accumulates. He won't go out the back My house is higher so it collects. The physics are unfortunate in that it hits my higher house and accumulates or comes inside. There's very little seperation between the dwellings.
It affects me quite badly as an asthmatic and affects my student boarder. And visitors are bothered by it in the courtyard.
I've tried every sort of negotiation with the individual next door basically begged him to shut his front door in the evening to at least minimise the smoke but he says he hasn't shut his front door for 30 years. He has no back door and many windows completely missing
His position is that he is not responsible for the smoke once it leaves his property as that is an 'act of god.'
His house is in the most absurdly derelict state yet the council engineer said it is structurally sound and I've been told that they tend to lose in court when they try to evict old men from their houses. The engineer came over and was blatantly telling me that it was an optical illusion that the verandah appeared to be collapsed but was actually straight. I felt I was in the monty python parrot sketch. The house is absolutely termite-infested it has hardwood walls that you can push your little finger through. It even has trees growing up through the structure.

1. Do I have any legal right to compel him to shut his front door (at least at night when I'm home) to stop the smoke
2. Can I challenge Council on their assessment that the building is structurally sound?

Any thoughts engineers or @RPI?

 

Could you post a few photos showing both your house and your neighbour’s house so we can make suggestions for ways to keep the smoke from accumulating in your house.

Perhaps from a more distant perspective than the ones you posted above so we can see how smoke from one house affects the other. And from the front as well as the side - showing your windows and any verandas.

There is a fair amount of knowledge about this sort of thing as licensed venues need to prevent smoke entering their indoor areas. So we might be able to help you with the smoke issue.

 

I'd be more worried about the fire risk! Can you create a windbreak with tall shrubs, use a fan on your verandah / porch and close your windows and doors at times? Surely the wind must blow it another way at times? It would have been good to see the position of his house relevant to yours. How long have you known him and are you sure he is an alcoholic? I wonder whether he may have dementia, because compulsive drinking and smoking can occur in some people due to problems with impulse control and memory - he may forget how much he has had. If he has dementia, he may not be capable of rationalising the situation and any change to his environment may have a devastating effect. Probably be the end of him.

 

Hi Whitecat

I thought this sounded familiar and realise that back in June 2017 you posted this about your neighbour:

‘He is sort of my mate. I chat to him every day about the neighbourhood...had a dispute with him about his cigarette smoking coming in my windows. Now he smokes in the bedroom only so I will live and let live and not report him. Apart from aesthetics I prefer his house there to an executive 2 story plus garage below, 5 bedder potentially blocking out a bit of my sun. All I see from my house are his trees and lantana...’

Has something changed?

 

Did you have his permission to take photographs? If you stood on his land to take the photos that may be illegal. Would suggest deleting the photo of the inside of his house as it shows his personal effects.

 

I think this is unecessary as there is nothing stopping people taking photos in the public domain - i.e no right to not have your house photographed by anyone who can see it (and anyway the possessions aren’t identifiable).

And similarly, nothing to prevent one neighbour taking photos of their house as it intersects with the neighbour’s house.

 

He probably has korsakoffs or something. He is an alcoholic I've seen what he drinks every day I could post a shocking photo of the interior (it's like a horror movie ) but I will not to protect his privacy and you can see in the photo empty and full bottles of rum everywhere.
As you can see in one of the external photos it's not possible to plant anything because there's no space down the side path. Here's a sketch

 

Possibly consider installing a couple of solar fans externally to create some airflow around the house before it accumulates in a dead air zone.

Neighbour's property looks derelict.

 

Yes. He reneged on smoking in the bedroom only a couple of days later and I got tired of having my asthma triggered and I've had 2 housemates complain. Not that him smoking inside makes any difference anyway because he doesn't shut his front door and he doesn't have Windows. He also complain to council about the noise of a fan I was running to disperse the smoke.

 

As for fire risk I think from what I've heard from him and witnessed periodically the fire department or council come around and fill up a skip with junk from his house and then leave him to it. Yes it's a big fire risk

 

Yes that's pretty much the effect it seems to be a "dead air zone" the breeze doesn't come through to blow it away and at the same time it never seems to move in the other direction because my house I guess it's blocking the breeze as it's higher and sticks out in front a little bit

 

Don't ventilate the dead zone but the breezeway between the properties so the smoke doesn't get to your house.

 

Potentially easy fix. You just need a taller and solid fence in front of the area in which he smokes - this will direct the smoke up.

Is the area on the sketch where you show him smoking open to the sky or covered by a verandah. Or is it that he is smoking in a room inside his own house and the smoke is coming out his window?

I’m surprised that the smoke doesn’t cause an issue when he smokes at the back of his house - as it looks from the sketch like it would be worse.

 

Can you please explain that Scott?

 

Covered by verandah. To get a fence high enough to lift the smoke up higher than my windows would be at least 6m high though

 

Perhaps you could offer to enclose one or two sides of the verandah for him. I also don’t think the fence has to be as high as your windows just a bit higher to allow smoke to dissipate.

Could you run an air purifier?

Here are a couple of other suggestions (but not an Aus site).
Breathe Easy: How to Stop Your Neighbour's Cigarette Smoke From Coming In - Housecraft: DIY House, Garden and Interior Design

 

If there is a setback from the fence, cause the air movement through this area rather than the area where the smoke is collecting (dead or reentrant corner of the house).

Alternatively, If the dead area is covered can ventilation be improved by a whirlybird to cause an updraft?

 

That house looks so bad I reckon the cockroaches would refuse to live there.

Get onto council about getting the place cleaned up. Or maybe buy it and kick him out.

What does his wife and kids think of the dump? How the heck would he entertain friends and work colleagues there? On second thoughts lol,

 

That's the security system by deception - slum on the outside, opium den/salubrious digs on the inside.

 

This is possibly some action - is it BCC in QLD or elsewhere?