Smell from neighbours

[LovesAutumnColours]

My house is less than 10 years old. My neighbours kitchen is the other side of the party wall. Every time they use their electric oven a foul smell pervades my whole house. There must be a ventilation problem somewhere.
Household name building company that constructed the house, the NHBCC and buildings insurer all refuse to investigate the problem.
Who should I employ to investigate? I know there is a problem somewhere.
Local council have suggested I log incidents (easy it's almost every day) and say they will investigate smell as a form of nuisance pollution but I am good friends with my neighbour and don't want to start a war. Please help

Just a guess but if they are having damp problems and you don't, it could be that they aren't having the heating on and not opening/ventilating their house so the smells are more intense and hence why you can smell them.

It's not possible for me to access the loft space.

Reluctant to ask other neighbours if they know how ventilation system works. It will seem a strange question without explaining and I don't want it to get back to my immediate neighbour.

I think it sounds as though I need a building surveyor

Definitely not anything in my property 💯 %

I will employ a buildings surveyor to investigate. Hopefully they will locate the problem

Thanks for your advice

What makes you think the houses have a ‘ventilation system’? Is this a forced air system which is installed in the loft and has outlets into your rooms through your ceilings? Most homes only have one system of ventilation (apart from mechanical extractor fans in kitchens and bathrooms) and that is for the foul drains, which are linked to an upward pipe which emerges from the roof, called the sourstack. This is a passive ventilator, though, which can’t draw in smells. As others have said, there are no shared ventilators between houses for firebreak reasons. I think it’s highly unlikely that a smell is actually permeating between the two houses. You can’t be sure that it’s not being caused by wiring in your walls or under your floors, or coming from your drainage system, without investigating properly.

You could employ a building surveyor to investigate, but be aware that this could be costly.

The first thing I would do would be to speak to the neighbour. Not to accuse them obviously but to ask them to turn on their oven to make sure it’s that and ask if you could have a look at their kitchen in case there’s anything that clearly doesn’t look right. If not the oven, maybe they’re doing something else at these times e.g. showering and the smell is coming from the drain or their extractor into your loft. I don’t think you’ll be able to investigate this issue without speaking to them about it. But also how do you know it’s not a problem with your house if no one has investigated

I would try and think of a reason to go round when you smell the smell to see if the smell is in their house or not.

If their house is very damp then could this be affecting your walls and creating the smell - as although you can't see damp in your house you are actually smelling it and if smells worse when they cook ?

You could get a damp proof person to check your house and do readings before you get a surveyor in as some damp proof companies don't charge a lot for surveys as they hope to get remedial work from you - the trick is to find an honest one or one recommended by a building surveyor

The situation sounds v odd and I hope that you can figure it out

Never ask a damp proofing company whether or not you need damp proofing.

Only rely on an independent surveyor, who is being paid only to survey.

Have you seen your neighbour recently, the weird 'summer kitchen bin' smell in my kitchen a few years ago turned out to be my reclusive neighbour had died and was starting to fester.

(He lived his life the way he wanted to, he wasn't fussy for interacting with people)