I presume you don’t use it in the rain or on very blustery days when it’s unpleasant to be outside, OP - In other words, when it doesn’t suit you to cook outside, you cook something else or sacrifice your house smells? I think it’s only neighbourly to make a conscious effort to be considerate by limiting the amount of cooking outside. Fair enough about it being a gas BBQ and trying to limit the smell but I’m afraid you can’t stop it from going into their house, and vegan or not I think it’s a horrible thing to have to deal with all the time.

Politely, I have to say I think it’s nuts that your solution to cooking smells you dislike is to keep cooking the same things but outside! In London! There are loads of ways to improve ventilation and smells inside your house. This is like setting up an outdoor shower to use year round because you don’t like a steamy bathroom. Your garden sounds lovely, you sound lovely, but your neighbours are entitled to hope for consideration and I’d agree to limit my usage so you can enjoy a barbecue when you have one instead of knowing you’re upsetting people.

I would happily live next to someone who just barbecues! Instead, we have neighbours who smoke cannabis every time we set foot in the garden and light foul smelling incense within seconds of seeing me hanging out my washing, purely to antagonise & be a d*ck. No chance of mediating or reasoning with them, sadly. I personally love the smell of barbecuing meat, though, & join the dog in sniffing the air and wishing I could get my paws on it when those around us are having a barbecue!!

I would perhaps bbq some really large stinky cabbages and take the story to the press .


And perhaps bbq a little less...

I was in a similar situation to your neighbours. We had neighbours who seemed to be using their bbq as a way of cooking meat a good few times a week. I'm a complete meat lover, but it was becoming a real pain. They turned out to be on a temp contract and moved out, but I was on the verge of having to say something to them. When the weather was boiling I was having to shut the windows to keep out the smell which would linger for ages otherwise. Even with the windows shut the smell would get in.

IMO the fact that they are vegan is irrelevant - you're creating a strong smell deliberately and very frequently when you don't need to. If you need to cook everything on the BBQ then maybe batch cook once a week. It would be as annoying as having someone smoking near your open window or playing loud music.

Dudette -  yes you really do need to get a life. As for a recipe for humanity, in this instance probably Live and Let Live is more than appropirate!

This is tricky one as I, like others, see both sides of the argument.

Gas bbq’s give out very little smoke and if they put the lid down there is less smell but there is still a smell. Therefore, the OP might want to cook inside with their doors and windows opened to help minimise the smell in their house. This might not get rid of the smell completely but might help. I personally hate the smell of fried / griddled fish in my house so I bake it instead - there is a different smell and it is far less accrid.

Moving the bbq would help and might appease the neighbours and I would definitely reduce the frequency of bbq’s.

I personally am not a fan of bbq’s but I quietly close my windows and doors (as we love our neighbours) but find it very hard if the bbq is at 7-8pm on a hot night when I’m putting the kids to bed. You wouldn’t like to sleep in a smoke-filled room or boil your kids in their beds on a hot night with the windows closed. So we and they try and bbq lunch or an early dinner so that the air is “clean” for bedtimes.

I Probably wouldn’t want an air purifier from you if I was feeling cross with you. Might be adding insult to injury and I’d be tempted to drop(-kick ) it back to you.

Also, your vegan neighbours might not want your bbq’d vegan food if your bbq has previously cooked meat and fish. You might have to change the grill top to get them to eat it.

I hope you’re not offended by my answer. I see both sides and I hope you find a solution that suits you both. X x Good luck.

By the simple admission you do not like to cook inside your own house due to the smell this leaves, I think that answers your own question really. Perhaps you should invest in a better extractor system in your own kitchen rather than cooking outside everyday to avoid the smells in your own house? I am a meat eater and have a small smokeless BBQ in my garden which we use occasionally but my neighbours opposite took to BBQing everyday in the summer months during lockdown. As you will remember we had many hot days so my garden doors were fully open for much of the day. But every time my neighbours opposite fired up their BBQ we had to shut the doors and all the windows to prevent the acrid smoke coming through our home. You should be able to BBQ but I think 'everyday all year around' would be enough to drive anyone mad so I think you need to compromise here and start to cook in doors more. If you don't like the smells this leaves behind then think of your neighbours.....and suggest you need to invest in your extractor system.

The vegans are mad for saying don't bbq. 
the others are mad for saying they will get an injunction against u. This simply won't happen, there is no law against bbq-ing Meat in yr own garden!
You need a compromise to be nieghbourly. It's tough if they are vegan bt bbq-ing it seems most days which directly affects other ppl is also unreasonable.

What about having some sort of chimney or extractor fan added to your built in BBQ area that could direct the smoke up and away from your neighbours?

This sounds so awful and stressful for you. I have been racking my brains for a solution, but it is difficult without seeing a plan of your garden and your neighbours, and the location of doors and windows.

If the smell of cooking meat inside your house bothers you I wondered if your house is open plan? If so it might be worth adding a door or sectioning it off, or at least the cooking part, from the rest of the house so that the smells are contained. (That's probably one of the reasons these houses were originally built with more separate rooms). We put in a door between the back of our house and our hall which does exactly this job.

A stud wall is not structural and should not cost too much. Then you can just close the door on that cooking area - let's call it a 'kitchen' - and keep the barbecue for social occasions, say once or twice a week in the summer months.

It's not music or anything that might disturb others. That's why OP has a piece on land on it's possible to grill and do whatever you want. If OP grilled vegetables and fruit then that's fine? No wonder vegans are liked less and less since they insist on bothering other meat eaters that they're vegans and we have to change our diet habits...

Can you please give me an idea of where you live so i make sure never to live close to your neighbour? In my view, being able to BBQ is a huge upside to owning a home compared to a flat. Tell them it could be worse, you could get a smoker with cooking cycles of up to 6-8 hours.

Interesting series of responses to this one!  It stirkes me that the selfish ones are the barbequers, not the neighbours.   No-one has to cook outdoors, especially as they no doubt have a nice posh kitchen indoors with all the latest gizmos!   Why not cook indoors and just take the food outside for a picnic, as we used to do in my childhood?  

The trouble is that  the smell cannot be contained within the confines of the BBQers' garden, and with our small London gardens, you are bound to affect neighbours over quite a large area.  (The BBQ craze seems to have come over from Australia, but the big difference there is the far greater space, allowing greater distance between houses. )  The neighbours have every right to enjoy the summer with their windows open for some fresh air - and maybe hang out their washing to dry in the open, which benefits the planet instead of using a tumble drier.  The trouble with BBQ smoke is not just the smell but the grease, and if that gets into your clean washing, you'll have to do all your laundry again.  

I must admit I was shocked at the attitude of "entitlement" shown in some of the replies in support of BBQs. Surely no-one has the right to ruin neighbours' summer with this unnecessary  activity?

There are two separate issues I think.

1) is it OK to object to a neighbour bbq-ing simply because it’s meat being cooked.
2) what level of barbecuing is acceptable?

IMO, it’s unacceptable to object to a neighbour cooking meat from an ethical point of view. That is a free choice and any vegan who cannot stand the prospect of this happening needs to adjust their expectations or where they live.

Regarding frequency of cooking on a bbq, I think it’s normally a summer activity and certainly not an everyday occurrence.

When our neighbours use theirs I have to close my children’s windows at the back or their rooms will stink with smoke.
I totally accept this and we also occasionally use the bbq in the summer season.

This is all normal, however, if our neighbour started smoking out my house several times a week all year round then that falls into inconsiderate behaviour to me.

I've been reading this thread with much interest and to be honest siding with the OP and then their vegan neighbour in turn. And i think that is the upshot. It isn't really one person or the other's fault.

It's the OP's garden. She did the right thing at the right time and asked the preceding neighbours about the bbq. It is her space and she isn't breaking any laws.

I thinking agreeing that buying the suggested air purifier would be an olive branch and suggesting that she will text ahead of cooking so that they can make plans their side of the fence would be helpful. Possibly finding out which are the most offensive smells so that they don't cook those foods too repetitively would be kind?

It is a tricky one but I don't think that the OP is at fault here?

Good luck sorting it and for being thoughtful enough to post to get feedback.