This is serious - the 2d hand meth fumes have already impaired his ability to use paragraph breaks! :eek:
“…can lie better than most.”
No. Can lie constantly yes, but generally are clearly FOS.
What genius came up with that idea? Forget for a moment whether the neighbor is cooking meth, I wouldn’t want a vent fan blowing someone else’s bathroom whiff into my apartment even if it was legal.
The typical multi-unit vent systems are passive at the bathroom end. There’s a common duct connecting all the bathrooms in that stack with one fan on the roof that pulls the air in from every bathroom and moves it all up the common duct to the roof and away from the building.
Assuming that fan is working air is being pulled from your bathroom into the duct 24/7. So no shared stink.
No guarantee that’s how the OP’s building is actually built. But that’s how they’re typically supposed to be built.
I’ve never had an issue in my bathroom, but I have in my kitchen, with smells from downstairs back-leaking into my kitchen. Usually not a problem, but with a previous neighbor down there a couple of years ago, I did come home to find my kitchen and entry way reeking of pot a couple of times.
@LSLGUY Our building is more like attached condos in a wilderness area. We don’t have a vent system the way you described.
My other neighbors confirmed they’re smelling it too and want us all to go to the landlord as a group. I said I didn’t want to do that just yet. Not sure if they did do that yet but I’d rather the police check out the smell first before bothering my landlord.
To each their own.
IME most folks think like your neighbors. The chain of escalation starts at the landlord, then the fire dept, then the cops, then your city / county council, and finally the local TV station or FBI.
When I read your first post, the immediate thing I thought was “Bengay”. My uncle has a bad back and rubs Bengay all over. It is a strong menthol peppermint smell. His whole house and all his clothes smell of it. When he rides in my car, my car will smell of it for days. If I sit in the seat he vacated, I will smell of it.
Is there any possibility you neighbor gets muscle aches periodically and uses the stuff?
Of course, another way of handling the problem would be to write a note - “I know what you are doing. Put $1000 in an envelope & put it under the door of apt (some number other than your own).” In this way, you stir things up, but leave yourself out. The cook may choose to leave, because he’s been discovered, and doesn’t want to have to pay extortion.
If being in the middle is exciting for you, have the guy place the $1000 under your own door. Then, pretending to not know anything about it, call the police & report having found $1000 in an envelope under your door. You’ll probably get to keep it in the end. You get the police involved, but not for anything that smells like a “rat”.
The OP said he lived in a rural area. Instead of finding $1000 under their door the person who lives behind that door will instead find a shotgun blast while walking across the grounds or driving into town.
Drug cookers and dealers can’t be relied upon to act like ordinary middle class citizens.
Right. Which is why you give someone else’s address.
As a landlord, we deal with tenant suspicions all the time. Almost always unfounded.
Before you go causing a big stink and paranoia with the other tenants, you might consider inviting a contractor experienced in the odor of out gassing materials, common to some newer construction materials.
For instance, look for other potential causes. Perhaps you only bath every 8 days and the humidity affects the new tile grout.
A reputable landlord will usually look for drug and criminal records before placing a tenant, and generally weeds out potential drug manufacturers.
OP doesn’t mention ANY other activity or events or noises etc that usually accompany people engaging in meth marketplace. So it’s probably something else.
I’m with bare and Graymalkin. It’s probably not what you think – if they were tweakers, you’d know.
Incidentally, there is a natural non-toxic bug spray you can buy from Amazon that is very effective, and it has a pretty strong reputation. Several people online recommended it to me once, when I had a bug problem.
How does it work?
Oil of wintergreen.
I don’t believe the cops can do that, especially if there’s some merit to the claims, but even if there isn’t. Why would they intentionally put you at risk by escalating what may be a simple misunderstanding into something considerably more serious?
You are not “bothering” your landlord by raising a legitimate tenant concern. Moreover, any reputable landlord would want to know about illegal - or even offensive - activity going on in their property.
Especially since the landlord can be sued by the city, criminally charged and/or lose his license to be a landlord by knowingly harboring criminal activity.
“You were allowing one of your tenants to cook meth!”
“I didn’t know about it!”
“Oh yeah, we have the following affidavits that complaints were repeatedly made to you. That’ll be Conspiracy to Manufacture charges for you!”
If the city really really wants to get nasty with a landlord, allowing your property to be used for criminal activity can result in a civil forfeiture action, then the burden of proof shifts to you to prove the city shouldn’t just seize your property without compensation to you.
We once complained to the police when the people across the street were having a house party at 3:00 AM on a Tuesday. They told the people to turn down the music, and then walked over to our house to take our names for their records. :smack:
I highly doubt that your neighbor is cooking meth.
Firstly, anyone who is cooking enough meth to produce enough gas to have such a strong smell is not going to be doing it in a small apartment with poor ventilation.
There are two basic ways to produce meth. Both are dangerous, but only one could feasibly be carried out in an apartment. That type of cook (called p2p) would never be done on such a large scale - enough to produce extremely strong smelling fumes-- because the chemicals involved in the production are highly regulated and very difficult to come by in large amounts. The only type of large cook that could produce vapors like that would never be done in an apartment like that due to safety reasons. And everyone in the building would be able to smell it easily then, since we are talking about needing to vent large amounts of gaseous hydrogen chloride.
Most likely he has something like a humidifier which blows menthol in a small apartment. We have one and it can be pretty strong, you just dump humidifier liquid in it which smells strongly of menthol/camphor.