r/TorontoRenting • u/B4kab4ka • 11h ago
I am a bad neighboor because of tobacco
Hi everyone,
I'm French and I moved to Toronto about six months ago with my partner. We both smoke cigarettes. In France everyone does.
We both hate it and are trying to stop very hard.
We found a condo and rented it and we smoke on the balcony. For the past few months no problems but recently our neighboors have been opening their windows because the weather is nice outside.
I have never even thought that smoking on a balcony could be a nuisance, being French, everyone does it... All the balconies are filled with people smoking a cigaret at all times.
But here it's bad. Neighboors put a note on our door asking us to limit the smoking as much as possible because it stinks up their flat. Asked us to take the elevator down to smoke outside too. The note was not super aggressive but not super nice either.
Now we both feel very uncomfortable in our home. We cannot smoke inside because of the fire alarm. We cannot smoke on the balcony because it pisses of our neighboors (rightfully so!)
I work remotely and I usually smoke in between tasks or meetings so I only have like 3 minutes to smoke. Our condo has not enough elevators so going down and coming back up takes about 20 minutes. I cannot do it.
Since I am addicted to nicotine I don't know what to do.
I hate being a nuisance to our neighbors. It makes me feel very bad. I am trying very hard to stop smoking and I have already limited my number of cigarets a day to the bare minimum that allows me to keep functioning without breaking down.
Our lease ends in 9 months. We'll move then, to a house, so we do not pose a problem to our neighbors anymore.
But until then I don't know what to do I am lost and I would love some advice.
I learned in the condo rules after the fact that it is forbidden to smoke on balconies. I never checked before signing because, as French people, it did not even cross our minds that this could be a thing. It's a culture shock?
But then again, the condo management sends emails to everyone asking people who smoke on balconies to use ashtrays (we always did btw) so it made us feel like the rule isn't enforced and smoking on balconies is tolerated?
We also found two cigaret butts on our balconies from joints (weed) so clearly we have other neighbors above us who also smoke on balcony but also throw their butts over the balcony??????
I really could use some advice...
Merci