Ugly feud between neighbours in Sydney apartment block blows up
Two neighbours have hurled insults at each other through their balconies over a smoking dispute and now one fed up apartment owner plans to take the case to court.
A Sydney apartment owner is planning to take his downstairs neighbour to court to stop her smoking “unbearably” on her balcony at “ungodly” times which in turn leads to the smoke drifting up into his own unit.
Jacques Klein lives above Marina Nartova in an apartment block in Rose Bay in Sydney’s east and the two have been locked in a bitter feud for the past three years.
Ms Nartova goes through a pack of cigarettes every two days on her balcony, which she acknowledged she sometimes does at 2 or 3am, causing the smoke to drift upwards and seep through the window cracks of her upstairs neighbour, Mr Klein.
He claims her constant smoking is impacting his health, including his ability to sleep, and he’s concerned about being subjected to passive smoking for years to come.
“It was waking me up last week, I couldn’t breathe,” Mr Klein told news.com.au.
“I felt like my whole body was filled with this smoke coming through. I think it was 2.15 in the morning.”
His bedroom is the room closest to the balcony, as is his work study, causing him he says to dread sleep or working from home. He has also bought a desk fan but it does little to remove the smoke.
Ms Nartova said to news.com.au that their dispute is “ridiculous” and that even if a court order is handed down, nobody could stop her from smoking “on my own territory”. She added in a challenge: “Take me to prison.”
The residents, who are both in their mid-50s, own their apartments and neither wants to move.
If the situation doesn’t change, Mr Klein says he plans to take Ms Nartova to the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) where he hopes she will be ordered not to smoke on her balcony.
A similar case happened last year where the nonsmokers won in a landmark decision that saw their smoking neighbours banned from using the balcony in that way.
Mr Klein has lived in his apartment for seven years but in the past three years the smoking became more of a problem. He approached Ms Nartova and her husband, and he says it was originally agreed they would only smoke from 8am to 9pm.
But ever since Ms Nartova’s husband passed away two years ago, the widow is smoking more frequently and at more unusual times.
Once, Mr Klein confronted his neighbour about the smoking and asked her to stop, which descended into her hurling abuse at him, she admitted to news.com.au.
Mr Klein then reported the smoking incidents to Alldis and Cox, the strata firm that manages his building.
Strata have since passed a bylaw in the building that bans smoking occurring in common areas, which would see Ms Nartova potentially fined $1100 for any breach.
However, Ms Nartova discarded the letter from strata and claims that her balcony is private property, separate to the common areas.
Alldis and Cox did not respond to news.com.au’s repeated requests for comment.
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Sometimes Mr Klein retreats deeper into the apartment to escape the smoke and his daughter, who also lives with him, will often find him asleep on the couch in the morning.
“Imagine if I stay here for another 10, 20 years? I’m enduring smoke every single night,” he said. “It’s got to have an impact on my health as passive smoking.”
He says he is so on edge that he is usually aware that Ms Nartova is out on the balcony several minutes before the smoke inevitably seeps into his bedroom.
“There’s a gate that leads from her balcony door, the gate swings open, then I hear the (scrape of the) chair, this is how quiet it is in the middle of the night,” he said.
“I then hear the lighter click, then I wait a few minutes, before I know it the smoke is coming through.”
The smoking became even more of a hindrance on Mr Klein’s daily life when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, which forced him to work from home more, in his office right next to the balcony.
“I’ve got to shut the door to the balcony, which doesn’t let air in,” he explained.
“And then if it’s really bad I shut the window. Even so, it still seeps through the cracks.”
Ms Nartova, who has lived in the apartment for 15 years, said it was a “long, long dispute” between her and her upstairs neighbour but insisted, “I don’t commit any crime.”
The Russian migrant has been smoking since she was 17 years old. Her husband was a non-smoker and since his passing, she has smoked “more”.
“We had an agreement that I can smoke from 8am to 9pm,” she told news.com.au. “But the circumstances, (with) my husband, I can’t sleep, I sit on the balcony and cry.”
She said she will “never” stop smoking, or go outside on the street to smoke “because this is my refuel”.
The widow said “the balcony is very wide” and the smoke that drifts up is minimal. She did not say how she knew the amount of smoke that drifted up was minimal, as she has never been to Mr Klein’s balcony or bedroom.
As she recently finished renovating in July last year, the middle-aged woman has no plans to move any time soon.
“This is my husband’s unit, this is my memory,” she added.
In April last year, Ms Nartova received a letter from the strata that outlined they had passed new bylaws that banned smoking occurring on balconies in the block.
“We have received multiple reports of cigarette smoke from your specific unit permeating other units at various times of the day and night,” the letter read.
“This is continuing to cause distress and health issues to other residents.
“The most recent report refer (sic) to an occurrence at the end of March with unbearable smoke coming through at an ungodly time where residents have had to relocate to another room of their unit for refuge from the smoke.”
Later on in the note, it outlined how Ms Nartova and any guests that came over must only smoke inside her unit and had to do everything in their power to prevent the smoke from polluting the airspaces of other units or common properties.
If she breached these rules, the strata management warned her that they would have to seek orders in NCAT for her to pay a $1100 fine every time she failed to comply.
“How and who can stop me from smoking on my own property?” Ms Nartova shot back.
“I don’t stop. I just ignore it (the letter).”
When news.com.au pointed out she was facing the possibility of a hefty fine and a court appearance if she continued, she was surprised, as she had not read the letter in full, and had instead stuffed it in a drawer.
Ms Nartova said she would be willing to compromise and smoke in her bathroom at night instead of the balcony, to avoid things going to court. She is concerned, however, as the smoke alarm is right outside the bathroom.
The debacle mirrors an almost exact case that hit the court system at the end of last year which became a landmark victory for nonsmokers in apartment complexes.
Brenton Pittman and Lynette Cartwright from Kingscliff in the Northern Rivers region took their downstairs neighbours, Des Newport and Carmen Traynor, to NCAT, which ultimately ruled in their favour.
The couple accused their neighbours of smoking on the balcony and said it drifted up to them and even leaked through air vents, even if they closed their doors and windows and used a fan and air purifier.
Since the ruling, the downstairs neighbours and any guests they bring over are no longer allowed to smoke on their balcony and they are reportedly looking to sell their unit.
alex.turner-cohen@news.com.au
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