Health Risk at My Apartments

Get an air purifier and documentation from your children's doctor regarding their increased illnesses since you moved in. Then go see a lawyer and find out if you can break the lease without negative consequences if it's because of a health issue.

You could also try to find someone to sublease the apartment to so you and your kids can move. Would that be possible?

I think it is very difficult to conclusively tie your kids health problems to the smoke traveling from your neighbor's apartment to yours, so I don't think you have a solid case there. The fact that the neighbors upstairs are noisy after 10pm would probably be more of an issue that can be addressed directly with the landlord. You could also try begging, making doe eyes and appealing to your landlords heart. However, if the landlord insists on not letting you out of the lease, I think I would just suck it up for another 4 months.

Some people said that an air purifier may help. Maybe you could also rearrange your rooms - switch rooms with your kids and see if it makes a difference for their health if they sleep in a room that's farther away from the smoke.

I would maybe ask the neighbors nicely about the smoking and also the upstairs neighbors about the noise. Who knows, they may be reasonable and not even realize how miserable they make your life.

I'd get an air purifier and find out the costs of breaking the lease and weigh it against the pros and cons of living there. I might also move the kids to sleep in the livingroom or something for the last 4 months.

Something like this happened near here, not long ago. The girl was much more sick than your children (facing a life-saving transplant), but perhaps something from the story can apply to you. The family got a doctor's letter stating that they simply could not risk her health by living there. The landlord refused to comply so the family went to the media. The landlord relented. If your children's asthma and allergies can be properly documented by a doctor and if the doctor will attest to the fact that smoke is damaging to their health, maybe you can present that to your landlord. But you will need to connect (in writing by a doctor) your children's health risks and the smoke and the poor insulation. Obviously when you moved in you didn't know what the insulation was like. It's not about fairness, don't use that argument, as very few things in life are fair. It's about your children's health.

Also, see if there is a tenant's rights organization in your city. My son lives in another city in Texas and had a problem with a landlord. The tenant's association was able to give him some really good guidance.

We bought a house and put $130K down on the house. Some crappy kids and awful parents moved across the street. They stopped paying their mortgage and after 3 years of not paying, still lived there. We couldn't handle it anymore, so we sold our house and moved. Walked away with a check for $10K....but it was worth it to not have their influence on our children.

We are now renting a house and refuse to ever buy again until the kids are out of the house. Get an air purifier - we love our Alpine. WORTH every penny when we first moved into a condo who had been owned by a smoker....and within a week, there was no hint of smoke.

Get a doctor's note and keep a file of contacts to the housing manager. Tell them you want out of the lease, so if anyone is interested, just to give you a 2 week notice?

Do not put a note on the door....and smokers will rarely change their smoking indoors, especially if they were there first.

There are these little insulation foam insert things that you can install behind all the switch plates and electrical plug plates.
Home Depot should have them.
They are suppose to be used on outside walls to prevent heat escaping/cold coming in, but between you and your neighbors it might help to block the smoke coming into your areas through the walls.
You might look for a smoke free apartment now so you have options when your current lease expires.

I don't know if it will help, but Texas as a law for tenants, "Right to Quiet Enjoyment."

"Tenants also enjoy the right to “quiet enjoyment” of their rental property. When other residents are being disruptive or disturbing the peace, tenants may complain to the landlord. Once notified about a problem, landlords have a duty to remedy behavior that disturbs tenants’ ability to quietly enjoy their rental residence.

Landlords also have a legal obligation to ensure their rental properties do not pose a threat to the tenants’ health or safety. However, landlords are not required to repair uninhabitable circumstances that result from damage caused by renters or their guests."

There's more to it, and you can check out the whole article at
https://www.oag.state.tx.us/agency/weeklyag/weekly_column...

I hope it helps.

Buy an air purifier--or two--cheaper than breaking the lease.

I'd try a face-to-face talk with them. You never know, maybe there's something the smokers can do to minimize the smoke on that side--I don't know.
I would NOT put a note on their door!

Put an air purifier in the kid’s room and/or leave the windows open all the time. I would use extreme caution with talking to or leaving a note for the neighbors. They have the right to smoke and as long as it is not in the lease to not smoke inside the dwelling then there is nothing you or the management can do (I always add to all my leases that smoking is not permitted inside the dwelling and it is legal as long as it is in writing first).

I would start looking now for a new apartment, maybe put a listing in the wanted section of your local Craigslist. Start calling different complexes and ask if they offer nonsmoking apartments.

Don't bring your issues with the neighbors smoking in their apartment that they pay for to the neighbors. They are doing what they want to in their apartment and they ahve every right to do it.

Get some purifiers and see if that helps while you look for a new place to live.

Here are some tips on how to naturally help prevent an asthmatic episode:
•Decrease protein to 10 percent of daily caloric intake. Replace animal protein as much as possible with plant protein
•Eliminate milk and milk products, substituting other calcium sources.
•Eat organically grown fruits and vegetables as much as possible.
•Eliminate polyunsaturated vegetable oils, margarine, vegetable shortening, all partially hydrogenated oils that might contain trans-fatty acids, all foods that might contain trans-fatty acids (such as deep-fried foods).
•Use extra-virgin olive oil as your main fat.
•Increase intake of omega-3 fatty acids.
•Always drink plenty of water to keep your respiratory tract secretions more fluid.
•Experiment with eliminating (one at a time) wheat, corn, soy and sugar for six to eight weeks to see if the condition improves.
•Eat ginger and turmeric regularly for their anti-inflammatory effects.
•Have some manipulative work done on the chest to break up restrictive patterns in nerves and muscles that develop in chronic asthma. The best systems I know for this are osteopathic manipulation, especially from a practitioner of cranial therapy, and Rolfing, a form of deep-tissue massage.
•Minimize contact with respiratory irritants, such as smoke, dust, molds, and volatile chemicals. Remove sources of offending materials from your home, install a good air filtration system, or consider moving if the air is generally bad where you live. Experiment with living in other locations: in high mountains, the desert, or near the seacoast. Asthma may improve greatly with a change of climate.
•In adults, GERD (acid reflux disease) may be an underlying cause of asthma. In such cases, successful treatment of the digestive problem will often clear up the asthma.
•Experiment with traditional Chinese medicine and Ayurvedic medicine (the traditional healing system of India). These systems are sometimes able to offer significant help through more specific dietary adjustments and herbal treatments.

I hope this helps.

You can always sleep w/earplugs...uncomfortable, sometimes, but will lessen the noise level. As for the smokers, I would ask the landlord/landlady to speak to the smokers & ask them not to smoke in their apt. IMO confronting the neighbors yourself can go either way, they'll either A) apologize & say "oh, no prolem" or B) tell you to mind your own business. Have you met the neighbors? Do they seem friendly & would be understanding?? You hafta be careful w/people these days, confrontations may cause more problems. If you only have 4 more mos, just try to stick it out & you can always move at that time. If there is a 2 br avail, your kids may hafta share til you find something else. Good luck!

4 months really in the scheme of things is not so far off that you can't hold out. Get the air purifiers that was suggested also, white noise machine or fan to block out the upstairs noise. Now after a certain time of day I do think it is agains the apartment policy to create unnecessary noise. You do need to look at your contract with the apartment to see what's stated. An anonymous note may work. Try it that way or if not then leave your name.

Listen when I lived in an apartment the parking lot was a weird set-up and they had to paint an extra parking space for our unit because it was missing and the units had assigned spots. We were bold enough to leave a note and if that didn't work we had the cars towed. Take a stand but be tactful and see if these steps help until you can get the hell outta there. In the meantime also, make sure you are on a waiting list for your new move. Best of luck

Since you can't move apartments (which I would see if there is a waiting list you can get on if a new one comes available), I would move your kids rooms. Even if you have to make the living room their bedroom and put the TV somewhere else.
This is obviously affecting their health.
Next I would contact a lawyer to see what legal rights you have as a tenant. Can you force the apartment complex to move you, can you get out of your lease without fees because of the obvious health issues (DOCUMENT EVERYTHING). Ask if the complex will let you out of your lease nicely and find a new place to live.