Mikeee5, this sounds like a right pain.

I was a non-domestic EHO-type person for a while and the area of "statutory nuisance" is very difficult to work through. To try and help you out a little:

Nuisance can only be assessed on an individual basis; with noise it can be through diaries and also through noise recording equipment but with smoke I would imagine that you would have to complete diaries (forms should be provided by LA when you log a complaint) to show the frequency of the events and also importantly, how they effect you. Detail the health effects and how these affect other aspects of your life. If you are out and don't know if the fire was lit or not, also record this as this can explain apparent gaps in the problem occurring or not. I would imagine that you will have to do this for a couple of months; return any completed log sheets to the LA and keep a copy for yourself. If the LA then judges that the frequency and severity of the complaint is such (according to your information), they may consider serving a notice on the owner / occupier of the property. However, they will almost certainly want to visit your property to witness the 'nuisance event' in progress so you will then have to call them to visit when it occurs. Crucially though, this will likely be after they have received your log sheets and have decided that your evidence suggests a nuisance may be occurring. If you can manage to allign all these, hopefully they will have no option but to serve a notice prohibiting the nuisance being caused - be that through remedial works or simply not lighting the stove.

When completing the log sheets and when communicating with the LA, its important to try and not be emotive as much as possible; rational and balanced assessments / correspondence will strengthen your case.

Other problems are that every time you log a new complaint, the LA will probably write to the other property saying that a complaint has been received. This may or may not have a short-term effect in them not lighting the stove; if it does and nothing happens for a few weeks, wait until it starts again and log a new complaint. Its important to keep doing this and not just start completing the log sheets as it may provide the LA with a get-out over the amount of time that has elapsed since the last complaint.

This is incredible onerous I know but the stat nuisance legislation is really unfit for purpose in many ways; that said, it sounds to me like you have an @rse-covering EHO manager who doesn't want to sign anything too!

The ombudsman only covers procedural matters and won't review 'professional' decisions so if the LA have written to you etc than their intervention is unlikely to do much beyond annoying the LA. I can't comment on Building Control at all I am afraid.

The other element that doesn't seem to have been explored is that the premises / land / property may be prejudicial to health. Speak to your consultant and ask them to confirm your condition may be made worse by exposure to elevated levels of NOX / SOX / COX and particulate matter; don't ask them to comment on your specific circumstances as they'll likely be unwilling to do so, but a clinical opinion on your condition and associated risk factors should be ok. You can then wave that at your LA and suggest that they look again at your case.

Keep us informed on how you get on.

Crikey. The only other option might be doing air monitoring in your property, but then that becomes a) costly and b) open to claims of tampering if not done professionally...

Someone has suggested that actually Damon, could be an option and may have the desired affect!!

Re the air monitoring - could you recommend anywhere where I could buy the equipment Jamster? I did approach one company about this and they said they only undertook commercial work!

We also have ash covering the cars most weeks. We have a security light attached to the gable end and when the fire is lit in the evenings you can see lots of particles shimmering in the light!

Mikeee

Thanks for that J. Steamy Tea mentioned Torts in an earlier thread, looks like the way to go. Re the evidence, I have more videos and photos of smoking chimneys than you can shake a stick at. I can`t recall receiving a monitoring sheet from the EHD but I have kept a log of the events as they have occurred. The burning Issue threads where what brought me to this forum following much time spent on search engines trying to find information about wood burning and smoke nuisance. I`m amazed that there isn’t more debates about this issue on the net, although it does seem a problem in parts of the USA and other parts of the globe. I have read somewhere that it could be a problem if multiples of these things where being used in close proximity and I would vouch for that, it has took just one in regular use in close proximity to my property to finish me off!! Not much fun trying to sleep in a fume mask (which is now black) parts of my lawn went a funny colour earlier in the year also. That was after it had been raining for a weekend while the stove was lit, the grass started to die where we had walked after walking on the wet paths around our property, I noticed it did the same to my neighbours lawn also!!

Mikeee

Can anyone define "approved to burn seasoned wood logs only"? I keep putting it into search engines and it`s not come up with pallets and scraps of wood as yet!!!

Mikeee

Thank you for your input and kind thoughts Nick. I have started a new thread called Smoke Nuisance - Is Wood Wood? under Heating and Cooling , thought it would be better continued there a my original question was regarding the close proximity of my neighbours chimney in respect to part J

Regards

Mikeee

Why should he go to all the expense to avoid a problem his neighbour isn't prepared to mitigate. And notice I said "avoid", not prevent.

Where's the MVHR getting its fresh air from? It isn't odourless smoke.

And MVHR in the garden?

The IANAL was actually Damon. First time I've ever seen it used.

...v. interesting thread(s)... lots of far more authoritative info, my thoughts:

1. Not sure that stove installation by HETAS engineer removed the need to not install a compliant flue even if its existing, check with local building control as a secret shopper.

2. These people are your neighbours and you will have to live with them come what may....

3. Asthma symptoms are exasperated by stress.
I saw a friend of mine get in a real mess with this: stress at home + one off spontaneous asthma attack, peak flow gets lower, attacks more frequent, lots of worry, GP shovels in the steroids, stress at home still there so worsening asthma continues, stress/symptom vicious cycle, more steroids etc until steroid dose is so high that major side effects occur, therefore more worry and more stress....
Q. ...GP...? A. even more steroids...!!

Eventually hospital, proper diagnosis, gradual weaning off steroids just about ok now after a couple of years...

Not wanting to add to the stress and easy to say I know but whatever you can, try not to let it get to you...

:)

J