Cooking smells from neighbours: causes, solutions and rules

Every evening around six, your whole home smells of fried fish, garlic or chip fat, while you have not even started cooking yourself. Cooking smells from neighbours are awkward to bring up, because everyone has to cook. Yet a smell that comes into your home every day can be genuinely wearing. This article looks at how cooking smells reach you, how to raise it tactfully, which solutions exist and what the rules in the UK say in general terms.

How cooking smells get in

The cause is usually not what your neighbours cook, but how the air is removed. A cooker hood venting outside right next to your window or air vent, a shared duct in a block of flats, or a recirculating hood with a saturated filter: all of these can carry smells to the people next door.

Your neighbours often do not notice. They smell their own food as something appetising, and have no idea it lingers in your bedroom hours later. Often they do not even know where their extractor vents.

Raise it kindly

Food is personal and can be culturally sensitive. Make sure it never sounds as if their food is the problem. Turn it into a question about the ventilation:

"I notice that cooking smells often come into our flat, especially the bedroom. It is nothing to do with what you cook, but I think the extractor might vent right by our window. Could we have a look together at what might help?"

Choose a calm moment, ideally not just as they sit down to eat.

Things you can ask for

Start with the smallest step and build up if needed:

• Using the cooker hood. Ideally switched on before cooking starts and left on a little afterwards, on a higher setting for frying.

• Changing or cleaning the filter. A clogged grease or carbon filter hardly traps any smell.

• Using windows and doors wisely. A kitchen window open on your side during cooking often sends the smell your way.

• Checking the outlet. Where does the extract vent, and is it properly connected? An installer, landlord or managing agent can look at this.

• Sealing gaps. Gaps around pipes and walls can often be sealed quite simply.

What the rules say in general terms

Cooking is part of ordinary home life. In England and Wales, the statutory nuisance rules in the Environmental Protection Act 1990 cover smells from industrial, trade or business premises, such as restaurants, but not cooking smells from a private home. So the council will usually not treat them as a statutory nuisance, although a persistent problem may still be a private nuisance in civil law. Building regulations (Approved Document F in England) set ventilation requirements for kitchens when homes are built or altered.

If you rent and a defect such as faulty ventilation causes the problem, tell your landlord in writing. In flats, shared ducts are often the responsibility of the freeholder or managing agent. This is general information, not legal advice. For help with your situation, contact Citizens Advice.

Keep a log

If the problem continues, note for a few weeks on which days and at what times you notice the smell, in which room, how strong it is and how long it lasts. Note the effect too, such as poor sleep. Stay factual and do not describe your neighbours' food. Do not take photos of their home and do not post about it in a local social media group.

In practice

Ventilation is everyone's interest. NICE guidance on indoor air quality at home advises people to use extractor fans or open windows when cooking, and says landlords should make sure kitchens have working mechanical ventilation such as extractor fans, with regular maintenance (source: NICE). Asking about a working extractor is a reasonable request, not a criticism.

A joint plan instead of blame. In its guidance for landlords on damp and mould, the Housing Ombudsman recommends that where everyday habits are part of the problem, landlords should create a joint plan instead of placing blame, with suggestions that are easy to follow (source: Housing Ombudsman). The same approach works well between neighbours: look for a practical fix together, not at what is on the plate.

If you cannot sort it out together

Send a second, calm message with what you have noted. A community mediation service can help you reach an agreement. If you rent, report it in writing to your landlord or housing association. In flats, ask the managing agent to check shared ducts. If you smell gas, do not wait: call the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999 (in Northern Ireland 0800 002 001). If you smell burning or see smoke, call 999.

A calm first message

The CalmNotes pack for cooking smells from next door gives you editable example messages to raise food smells tactfully, with follow-up messages if nothing changes and an Excel log. You can find packs for other situations in our English packs for the UK.

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