# Smoking in a rental property



## Jay1233 (Jul 22, 2014)

Hi Everyone.

I have recently moved into a new building, its a non smoking building, but every morning at 0530 on the dot, all I can smell coming into my apartment through either the bathroom vent or the air con, is the smell of stale smoke.

It again happens throughout the evening and at various times over the weekend - its disgusting and is so bad at times, I am having to re-wash clothes.

I am a non smoker, so notice it more - I have complained to the building management, they send up maintenance, but say there is no smell and that it must be my washing, I am yet to find a comfort softener that smells of smoke and nicotine!

They have shut off the vents, but the smell still ingresses.

Any ideas what I can do?

It is making me ill, so any guidance or help would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you! 

Jason


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## Stevesolar (Dec 21, 2012)

Jay1233 said:


> Hi Everyone.
> 
> I have recently moved into a new building, its a non smoking building, but every morning at 0530 on the dot, all I can smell coming into my apartment through either the bathroom vent or the air con, is the smell of stale smoke.
> 
> ...


Hi Jason,
When we first moved to Dubai, we were given a flat for a few weeks whilst our real place was got ready.
It was a new building in Karama and exactly the same thing happened to us.
Luckily we only had to endure it for a few weeks - but it was certainly a big problem to us.
A different problem happened when we moved to our compund villa - we got strong onion cooking smells from next door at 6.00 am every morning. Maintenance team went on roof and essentially our AC inlet was sucking in smelly air from next doors kitchen extractor outlet - useless design fault!
They fiddled around and improved it - but never cured it completely.
In your case - you really need to kick up a fuss with the building management and maintenance team.
If they smoke - it will be difficult for them to detect the smells as their noses will be less sensitive than yours - as a non smoker.
Best of luck
Steve


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## TallyHo (Aug 21, 2011)

There are actually non-smoking apartment buildings in Dubai? 

There really won't be much you can do, unfortunately. Maintenance/repair boys will come approximately 20 times over a six month period to "look" at the problem without doing anything. Then they'll forget about you and stop answering your call. Then you move out. Life goes on and smokers continue to smoke happily. It's frustrating but given the high rate of smoking among many nationalities, something that most of us encounter at some point in Dubai. 



Jay1233 said:


> Hi Everyone.
> 
> I have recently moved into a new building, its a non smoking building, but every morning at 0530 on the dot, all I can smell coming into my apartment through either the bathroom vent or the air con, is the smell of stale smoke.
> 
> ...


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## Hi All (Dec 3, 2014)

Stevesolar said:


> Hi Jason,
> When we first moved to Dubai, we were given a flat for a few weeks whilst our real place was got ready.
> It was a new building in Karama and exactly the same thing happened to us.
> Luckily we only had to endure it for a few weeks - but it was certainly a big problem to us.
> ...






Would you believe, people in my apartment are smoking in the elevators. I come home late from work and every day I can smell smoke in elevators. I have made complain many times but they say they cant catch the culprit if he / she lights up while using the elevator. 
What I am facing big time is , one expat couple having domestic issues and yelling all the time. They dont even care if it is middle of the night.
You are lucky if neighbors are nice.


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## Stevesolar (Dec 21, 2012)

Hi All said:


> Would you believe, people in my apartment are smoking in the elevators. I come home late from work and every day I can smell smoke in elevators. I have made complain many times but they say they cant catch the culprit if he / she lights up while using the elevator.
> What I am facing big time is , one expat couple having domestic issues and yelling all the time. They dont even care if it is middle of the night.
> You are lucky if neighbors are nice.


Hi,
I used to work in a building where people also smoked in the elevators - so being a non-smoker i always got my own back by releasing wind - just before my floor!
As a famous British comedian used to say "farting in an elevator - wrong on so many levels!"
Cheers
Steve


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## BedouGirl (Sep 15, 2011)

Stevesolar said:


> Hi, I used to work in a building where people also smoked in the elevators - so being a non-smoker i always got my own back by releasing wind - just before my floor! As a famous British comedian used to say "farting in an elevator - wrong on so many levels!" Cheers Steve


Hahaha brilliant! And that's coming from a smoker! Mind you, I only smoke outside, even at home, and report smokers in my office building. I've upset quite a few of the people in my building, particularly the one who installed a very nice crystal ashtray on the emergency staircase during Ramadan!


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## Navaron (Oct 13, 2014)

There have been several high profile fires in apartment blocks in JLT over the past few years cause by smokers discarding butts over the balconies... my own apartment block almost had a disaster a few months ago for exactly this reason


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