Being able to see or smell the smoke does not make it a nuisance.
The smoke must be coming from a trade or business and it must affect you at your home rather than in passing by in the street, for example.
For smoke to be a statutory nuisance
- it can be continuous or intermittent and can happen during the day or night but it must happen often,
- be unreasonable,
- frequent and
- substantially interfere with the use or enjoyment of your home, for example, if smoke fills your property.
If your informal discussion has not been successful and you want us to investigate your smoke nuisance complaint then please log your concern on MySandwell portal for investigation.
We are pleased to investigate your smoke nuisance complaints but would encourage people to speak to businesses themselves first to try to resolve the matter informally. Experience shows, that if done sensitively, it often leads to better and more permanent outcomes.
In general, when a complaint is made we will:
- Contact you to gather additional details of the complaint;
- Contact the premises alleged to be causing the smoke and explain the Council’s procedures for investigating. Very often this informal approach is sufficient to resolve matters and no further action is necessary;
- Send diary or monitoring forms for you to complete.
If no monitoring forms are returned, no further legal action can be taken.
Smoke from a Domestic Chimney
You can find out further information and report a problem with smoke from domestic chimneys via MySandwell Portal.