Legal Help for Nuisance: Cooking Smells and Neighborhood Discussions

Questioner

My upstairs neighbours are bothered by my cooking smell. That is why I disconnected the extractor hood from the connection to the chimney (apparently it was not sufficiently airtight) and made the hood a recirculation hood, so without an exhaust to the outside. However, the upstairs neighbours still smell cooking smells that apparently enter through small cracks in the ceiling. Now I want to solve that as well as possible. However, the upstairs neighbours do not trust this and do not want to cooperate. I need their cooperation to have a smoke investigation carried out. If I can see where the smoke is coming out of their house, I can better determine where there is a crack in mine (and theirs!). My question: can I, by invoking ladder rights, demand that my neighbours cooperate with the work I want to do?

Lawyer

In all probability, ladder law will not offer you any relief here. To be honest, I would choose a different approach and let your neighbours know in a polite letter that you find it annoying that they are bothered by your cooking smell and that you would like to try to find a solution, but that you can only do that with their cooperation. Then you can wait and see what the reaction is.

Lawyer

Apart from that: if people live close together, some nuisance is assumed to be normal, including odor nuisance from cooking. Only if you really cause nuisance in an unlawful manner could the neighbors force you to take measures. That is the case if you cook a lot and for a long time. It is polite that you take the complaint seriously, but you do not have to bend over backwards to avoid every cooking smell.