Q&A: Problem with neighbour’s wood fire oven – their oven smokes out my house and they refuse to stop.?
Question by Belle34: Problem with neighbour’s wood fire oven – their oven smokes out my house and they refuse to stop.?
Hi
I have an annoying problem. My neighbours built a wood fire oven 2 years ago, right opposite my bedroom window. Up until this point we have been on good terms (we’ve been neighbours for over 35 years) but ever since they built their oven things have become quite bad.
Every time they light their oven (a few times a week usually between 6-7am) my house and in particular, bedroom, fills up with smoke. I’m asthmatic so wake up choking and coughing because of them and either have to stay in one part of my house or leave my house altogether for hours, until the smell goes.
We’ve tried the neighbourly solution many times – unfortunately my neighbours are very very very old fashioned Italians (my family is also Italian) and they just refuse to believe their smoke can enter our property and they say we are making up stories to be troublemakers.
Then they made a “deal” that they wouldn’t light it until we’ve gone to work, but they’ve since reneged on this & light it all weekend, during the week, every public holiday (yes Christmas in our house is ruined every year now) etc. Temperatures where I live get up to 40+ degrees (celcius) and they will burn on those days, burn on total fire ban days, burn when the weather cools down a little (so we can’t open the windows to air the house) and we are spending a lot more money on washing since our washing is constantly being smoked out so it needs to be rewashed a couple of times, usually.
We’ve called the council, the council visited and on that day my neighbours burned the “correct” wood, however after that visit they went back to burning what must be much cheaper wood (it smells really toxic for hours). The council says as far as they’re concerned they encourage wood fire ovens & wouldn’t contest them using it, and we have to “get used to it”. Hard to say when you’re an asthmatic!
I live in Adelaide, South Australia. Does anyone know of any organisation or law or something that will protect someone in my situation?
I’m all for helping the environment, but not at the expense of my health.
Thanks for reading this 
Thanks for your replies so far I should have also mentioned that we did contact our local EPA & as far as they’re concerned my neighbours are doing a wonderful thing for the environment (they told us this in these exact words) and have no issue with the wood burning. Funny, because incinerators are banned from use, but not wood fire ovens!
So it’ll have to be health authorities I guess. I didn’t think of checking with an attorney (the police refer us to our local councils unfortunately) so I’ll have to see what I can unearth in the health authorities direction. It’s just such a frustrating situation to be in …
Best answer:
Answer by Maggie C
It seems that you don’t have an oridinance pertaining to wood burning or other burning devices on a property. I would say that as a tenant/ or owner of said property I would consult with an atty to see what kind of lawsuit can be institituted against this abusive type of health/environement hazard.
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Check with your local police (just in an “inquisitive” manner) to see whether any laws are being broken here. If they are, the police will advise you how to notify them.
I also live in Adelaide and the Summer’s fire ban has started which means people cant have open fires outside anymore and on total fire ban days people cant even have a BBQ. I would contact the CFS closest to you or the MFS as soon as they light it on a total fire ban day and the MFS or CFS will come around and they will get a big fine which might deter them lighting it during Summer again. Also maybe you should consult a builder or house surveyor about what could be done to your house to prevent smoke entering it from outside.