We have a smell which permeates our house - not unlike that of a sewer coupled with urine !! Before our holiday, Chris took off all the boarding on our half-landings to check the down foul pipes which (as it is an end of a line of 6 houses) run through the walls separating us from our neighbour Jane. Jane's house is council owned and she is the tenant. Our house is privately owned by us.
Chris could not find any leaks or any evidence of past leaks, which was a relief !
We approached Jane and talked about it. She said she had noticed a smell also, and had asked her son (a plumber) to check her pipes, also at the half-landings. Apparently there was a covering of brown slimey stuff down her pipes, and her son was asked to get it cleaned off and check to see if there was a leak anywhere. Presumably he got it sorted.
Obviously a wall divides the two properties, with her pipes on her side of the wall, and our pipes on our side.
She said she would complain to the council and get them to sort it all out, because the smell was still there !
We went away for three weeks and returned to a stinking house !!!!
We rang the council, because we hadn't been able to catch Jane, and although they could not act from a third party complaint, they did say that they had received no complaint yet from Jane !!!!
We called in the environmental health and he came to check our side, and see if he could smell anything, of course it's sod's law that there was only a trace of the pong ! He did notice this however, and said he would leave a card in her door to ring them urgently, so they could gain access to her property. Jane works in the daytime so wasn't in at that time.
However we will wait and see what happens next. The EH chap said to ring him straight away when the smell is very noticeable and he would try to get here as soon as he could.
At the moment we are using quite a few incense sticks, bowls of dried lavender etc. when the pong gets a bit strong.
Just can't understand why Jane doesn't sort this out, after all it won't cost her anything ffs, her landlord is the council !!!!!
Just thought you might enjoy reading that little everyday story of suburbia, and I hope you weren't eating lunch at the time LOL :rolleyes:
