On the weekend we noticed a strong smoke smell coming into our house. On inspection it is coming from our immediate neighbours side, they must have installed a new fireplace.

Does anyone know if it is illegal if they can't control the direction of the smoke? Do I need to call council?

Thanks

Ive tried looking on your local council website but couldn't really find much information on it regarding the expulsion of smoke.

There is a link to incinerators but not quite sure if it is what you are after?

http://www.boroondara.vic.gov.au/community/yourhouse/incinerators

Anyways good luck with the problem, perhaps a complaint to the local council member?

I'd try the EPA - see http://www.epa.vic.gov.au/

I live in a court and behind my back yard , not directly kinda on an angle behind my next door neighbors( if that makes sense : ) there's this guy who has some sort of back yard fireplace , or he probably burns off , which is illegal . Each time he does this it smells of kerosene fumes and its smoky. It drives me crazy !!! Here I am sitting outside on a beautiful clear day and this guy is burning off. He has made some sort of chimney that goes high up so nothing is blown into his property but stuff the neighbors. I once called the EPA and they were of no help ! I was told because its a legal matter I should call the police.

The so called authorities certainly like to give well meaning people the runaround... grab your handicam and make a vidoe then call Today Tonight!

Hi DArgy,

I would call the police instantly. If there is something that should be sacred, it's the air that's in and around your home, especially if children are involved.

I am surprised the EPA were of no help, this seems like something they have a duty of care to look into. And after doing a little research, it looks like they WANT you to report infringements:

http://www.epa.vic.gov.au/reporting/default.asp#pollution

Very strange they couldn't help you DArgy.

AJ

Thanks, I'll try again

Well I did and they said they will look into it. I had had enough ! He lit it up again the other day and this thick smelly smoke blew right at my place. I took a picture I'll post it so you can all see what I mean. He has been doing this on average 2-3 times a week .

How do I post a pic ? Just paste it or provide a link ?

Hi DArgy, we don't have the ability to post a pic just yet, but we are working on it (as you can tell by the new panoramio and flickr integration throughout the entire site). What you can do is upload the picture to a street, and then simply post a link here to it for everyone to see.

AJ

I have put a stop to the annoying, health hazard, smelly smoke from my neighbour !!! Hip hip hooray !

That's great - you must be relieved!

I am VERY relieved ! He would have the nerve to burn out right in the middle of the day on a beautiful clear day like today. I sometimes cannot understand the way some people think............

Are you people stupid? Call the police? Call the EPA? How about knocking on your neighbour's door, introducing yourself and letting them know that there's a problem and if he has to burn off, would he mind letting you know beforehand and perhaps only doing it once a month.

When did we all become so scared of talking to our next door neighbours? Quick! Run to the authorities! They MUST help you. Why should you bother helping yourself?

Because people who do these kinds of offensive and possibly illegal things in their yards tend to be wackos and you don't want to confront them or make yourself known to them because they can get nasty. Much better to have the lawful authority deal with the matter.

The thread started out with someone complaining about a neighbour with a fireplace IN THEIR HOUSE and the smoke from that fireplace impacting on the neighbour. Nothing illegal about that.

Instead of bothering to knock on the neighbour's door, the poster instead wanted to know what they could do to stop this neighbour and their fireplace.

Instead of bothering to actually COMMUNICATE with the people around them, they'd rather just run to the authorities and have them deal with it. So the neighbour gets a letter from the Council or other authority that says that some anonomous person has complained about them. Hasn't actually bothered to talk to them, just complained about them anonomously.

Which you would imagine would piss off the neighbour even more than someone knocking on the door and saying "Hi, how's it going. We probably haven't met, even though we've both lived in this street for the last few years, about 50m from each other and actually COMMUNICATING with the person about the issue that they have".

The post then moved on to complain again about someone who was doing something in their backyard that annoyed that person. In their own backyard, but it was impacting on the poster. Again, instead of actually bothering to deal with the issue themselves, they pushed it off to the "authorities" to deal with.

Makes for a great neighbourhood. Great community.

People complain about the death of communities and a more intolerant and violent society. Well - this thread is your answer as to why.

People would rather have the "authorities" do something for them than do it themselves. People would rather moan and complain about their neighbours than go an knock on the door and actually deal with the problem.

I know my neighbours well. I had a problem with the next door neighbour's pool filter and it being a bit loud. I didn't write to the local council, or build a big brick fence or complain to the EPA. I went and knocked on my neighbours door. "G'day mate, how's it going. Just wondering if you could set your filter to run during the day when I'm at work. It's a bit noisy next to our bedroom at night".

You know what his response was "No problem mate. Didn't realise that it was running loud".

Problem solved, nobody upset or offended. No need to constantly worry about who's dobbing on who or who's complaining about who.

It's pretty simple stuff. Pity so few people actually do it.

LMM you raise some very valid points and in a perfect world we would all love our neighbours and always be considerate to each other BUT when someone has purposely built a chimney in their backyard high enough so as to avoid smoke coming into his property but to be directed into the surrounding properties and lights it at least three times a week then there is a problem. That's like me blowing smoke directly in your face and pretending I don't know I'm doing it ( not that I smoke : )
And like BrianWard said it's not only offensive but possibly illegal, backyard burnoffs have been illegal now for many years so why should I knock on their door if they snub their nose to the law why would they pay any attention to me. I treat my neighbours and friends with the respect that they show me .
I would knock on a neighbours door about a noise issue but this was something completely different, so before you get on your high horse about communities dying it takes two to meet half way. Another neighbour actually did knock on their door and they certainly didn't get a "sorry mate, I didn't realise I was suffocating you" but a "get lost , it's my barbeque "