Hoping someone out there has some idea what our options are as renters. Our neighbours (3 roommates) in the flat directly below us smoke marijuana non stop once they are home. 24/7. Smoke both on the balcony and inside their flat, and the smoke/smell penetrates into ours making it impossibe to either enjoy our balcony or even simply open our windows. Obviously we have spoken to them about this directly with no luck.

Do we have any rights at all?? We have complained to the "Verwaltung" but our neighbours are happy to ignore their letter and our pleas.

If the apartment rules allow smoking there isn't much you can do about it smoking is smoking no matter what it is.

You could, as a long shot, inform the police and depending on how tolerant they are of people smoking marijuana on their own premises, it might solve your problem or open a nasty can of worms.

You could also threaten to go to mediation (which would entail paying your rent into court rather than to the Verwaltung) and going to sit before a mediation board to discuss possible solutions. The whole thing then becomes quite public and messy, and if you have made written complaints about an illegal activity in an apartment in the same building and the Verwaltung has not reacted, then it might put them in a negative light and they may not necessarily want that. The threat to go to mediation may well get them to focus on the problem rather than call your bluff (which would be foolish as the process is not difficult and it is free...).

Hmmm, that's not entirely true. Neighbourhood law draws the line at emissions (such as noise, smells or other disturbances) which are a constant annoyance to neighbours. For instance, your neighbour may have justified grounds for complaint if you put your compost heap right on the lot line with his property, or if your outside BBQ is placed in such a way that the smoke always goes into their living room. Sure, it's complicated, but there are ways to tackle these problems.

My advice: Ring their door bell and talk to them, or write a letter. Trying to find some form of a compromise before escalating things is always worth while.

Then, you have two options. The one outlined to you above or the criminal law route. As far as I recall, Marjuana is actually still illegal though you can have small amounts for personal consumption, I'd still guess they'd be over the "acceptable we'll turn a blind eye limit".

If you wish to go this route, call the police and mention the disturbance... they'll come round smell it for themselves...

Thanks Snoopy! Great advice as we definitely have grounds for "constant" emissions annoyance. It's almost comical how bad it is.

Hi Sandgrounder - Thanks for your quick response. Had a review of our "Allgemeine Regeln" etc and "Hausordnung" and cannot see anything mentioned about smoking. Will move on to criminal solution next, but not sure what a "nasty can of worms" means....? Surely there must be *some* sort of protection for us when it is this extreme?

Hi Lynn, we have tried to speak to them, several times in fact. Will pay a visit to the local police station and see if it is something they can help us with. Thanks for advice from all of you. Great forum!

Ohhh, that's just horrible and I know just too well how aweful this can get. For several months someone smoked their stuff, which smelled really yuk,
truly st1nky sh1t stuff, like burnt carpet or something, and it would enter my bedroom like at 1 or 2 in the morning several nights per week...

Someone must have said something as then suddenly they decided to smoke on the balcony. And now, all of a sudden, that stopped too.
I never figured out who it was and why it stopped but it wasn't funny at all.

I really hope you can find a solution soon !!!

It is truly debilitating. And it's not as if we're some sort of anti smoking fanatics. Have lived all over the world and used to big city, bright lights noises and smells but this is ridiculous. It is funny because when we ask well informed locals, we've gotten some odd(?) responses: "oh forget it, good luck trying to kick someone out of a flat in CH" or "Forget it, everyone has a right to smoke. You'd have better luck if it was BBQ smoke or if they were making loud noise". Which is just so strange to us ?? Have had more useful feedback from this forum!

Immediately after noticing the smell..? If so then your speech fell on incoherent ears..

You need some flower boxes on your balcony. As soon as they start smoking on the balcony you have to give your plants copious amounts of water, in fact try drowning them (for this reason it might be best to use plastic flowers). In most apartments when you do that the balcony below gets drenched...might put a "damper" on the experience for them.

I would just be a bit concerned, not knowing the people or their demeanor, how they would react after you had involved the police. They might find other ways to get under your skin which would just make things more uncomfortable.

Teach them how to make hash brwonies instead?

I realize your issue is serious but I must say, as a non-smoker, I almost wish I had your problem rather than the "regular" cigarette smoke that comes up from the downstairs balcony on summer evenings or (even worse!) in through the bedroom window from next-door.

As much as I dislike marijuana smoke, I prefer that over the smell of cigarettes.

Agree, no good will come from involving the police.

Rather than brownies, I would suggest a vaporizer. It will significantly reduce the aroma, or so I am told...

This may have been a lighthearted comment, but is a very valid point.

Complaining to someone at the time would almost certainly be useless. You menioned that you have spoken to them on several occasions. Has this been at a time when they woere not under the influence?

I also agree that involving the Police is more likely to antagonise the problem. Snoopy appears to have the best answer with the mediation route, on the basis of the 'constant emissions' nuisance.

Don't try the retaliation methods of BBQ, compost heap or drowning them. That would probably escalate the problems

Just don't inhale.

Odors of any kind can be really annoying, so I suggest you write them a letter and ask them to at least smoke outside, as it's intolerable indoors. Invite them for a drink, even, they are your neighbours.

Tell them you won't go to the police or the landlord, you know that'll make little difference to their behaviour. But you may get them onside by being as personable and non-judgemental as possible. As with loud music, it's not them listening to music which is the problem, it's the bass. Good luck

You could buy them a vaporizer as a housewarming gift. I think both parties would be happy then.

"What are the benefits of vaporization?
The main benefit of using our vaporizers is of course to protect your lungs from harmful carcinogenic smoke. With your vaporizer you get NEAR ZERO SMOKE because nothing actually burns. Due to our vaporizers inherent design efficiencies you will actually use far less herbs for the same effect. When you use our vaporizers you only ever get the active ingredients/chemicals in their purist form. It is much healthier to use a vaporizers, rather than bongs."

it is not illegal to consume marijuana on your own premises if you grew it and have permission to do so. but like with anything, if it bothers you the polite thing is to write a letter to the tenants informing them that it in fact bothers you.