A barrel of human poo in the back garden of sister's rented house.

[AvengingAngel]

My sister has been in a rented house for nearly two years and the last tenants left a barrel of human poo in the back garden. This is not a joke. Despite numerous attempts to get the Estate Agents to move it, it has not happened, even though promises have been made. I know she dearly wants to stay in the house, but come on! Any advice? Please??

Yes. Maybe you're right. I feel very guilty actually. As her family maybe we should have been more proactive in trying to get this sorted sooner.

Virgil
who empties your septic tank for £50 are you anywhere near yorkshire [hopeful]
would appreciate name/number if you are

Latara do you have children with SN?
I'm guessing not.

AvengingAngel - you must throw a farewell poo party after it's gone

Sorry; i didn't see that :(

Yes, i know that some children with SN do smear poo etc around - if i'd read her post more slowly i'd have noticed that Glitter had said her child has SN & would have understood.

I'm really sorry Glitter.

those trucks that suck up poo are called Honey Wagons round these parts

no help at all i know, but thought i would share

I rented a property with damage to it (not a barrel of poo I may add), and the landlord/letting agent didn't want to know. Like your sister, I kept being made promises which came to nothing. Again, like your sister, I loved the house, the area etc, and finding somewhere to move to wasn't an option, financially or otherwise.

What did I do? I withheld my rent.

Of course, this did NOT go down well with aforementioned Landlord or Letting agents. So, when they suddenly couldn't wait to get in touch for their cash (or to threaten me), I said to them, please, take me to court, I beg you to. Then I can mention the repairs in my property that remain out standing, and you can explain why I've been expected to pay my rent on time everytime, thus keeping my end of our rental agreement, when you have no intention of doing so.

Funnily enough, its amazing how quickly things get done when you stop paying rent until they do them!

Never a good idea to withhold rent unless you want to be evicted

DP who grew up in the Eastern Bloc and had an outdoor loo says they used to put limescale on top of their doings in order to keep it civilised. Maybe the chemist will have something they can put on it to contain the smell whilst she gets the EA/public health onto it.

I had to explain about chamber pots. He had a vision (TBFair English is not his first language) of the previous tenant precariously squatting over the top of the barrel.

I once rented a house that had 2 suspicious looking black sacks in the garden. On closer inspection it turned out the previous tenants emptied their cat litter trays into black sacks, waited until they were full, tied them up and left them there - vile people!!

I did the industrial strength triple bagging, gaffa tape, old clothes, full length rubber gloves and mask thing and got them to a tip.

That could easily have been mistaken for human poo given the smell.

Oh nooooo Latara.... really?
Oh my I really have absolutely no sense of hygiene do I?

Well.... actually I do.

DS2 however doesn't. He's severely autistic with ADHD. He couldn't cope with the situation and short of following him everywhere to try and stop it there wasn't a hell of a lot I could do - except clear up the majority of the mess whilst running around after his other 2 autistic siblings.

OK?

Oh, and I just had to do what I could with kitchen and loo roll... remember I had no water??!?!

So it really needed a proper deep clean, which I was prepared to do but EH intervened.

I don't mean to scare your sister, but I'd be worried about the possibility of the barrel containing a body! Decaying corpses stink to high heaven (as I know only too well having found a dead rabbit under ds's bed )

That might get it cleared faster , call the police and tell them you think there is a corpse at the bottom of the garden.

Dh left some bags of grass in the garden for a few weeks (which we cleared today), it stunk to high heaven and i had to scrub the slabs that were under them as it looked liked a body had decomposed .

Latara missed your subsequent post.

Thanks

Where did the dead rabbit come from??!!!!!

Why doesn't the turd barrel overflow when it rains? Do you think there might be holes in the bottom and seepage is taking place?

is the barrel made of wood? If so it'll most definitely disintegrate soon enough.

I am hoping that the cat brought the dead rabbit it because the other alternative is that my 6 year old son has caught and decapitated a wild rabbit and then left its decomposing remains under his bed

No bad thing MrsMiniver, self sufficiency from an early age and all that.

OP, what about that bran stuff you can put on bokashi composters?

"Tell her to put it in a short letter and send it recorded delivery to the company secretary at the registered address of the agent (it will be on their letterheading and contracts) and also to the landlord (the agent is not allowed to conceal the landlord's name and address).

If it is not in writing then, when the shit hits the fan, they might pretend they didn't know."

Does anybody know a good reason not to put it in writing?

Send a letter to EA with 3 quotes from portaloo/septic tank companies, subtract amount of middle quote from rent. Pay company. Job done.

Tip won't take human waste and would be breaching their license if you managed to sneak it in.

It's rely unlikely to be poo

Is it in liquid, so making it anaerobic. Anaerobic decomposition of anything stinks. What kind of barrell is it? Could it be old wine/beer making?

I would phone a private waste company and have them take it away

Oooooo....or could it be a decomposing body?

Is Gillian McKeith on MN? Can you imagine, it would be like all her birthdays and christmasses in one with all that poo to examine

Someone upthread talked about wrapping up the barrel and taking it to the tip - there is NO WAY that bad boy would be going anywhere near any car of mine

I've been to hippy type lentil festivals. They have long drops and use lime. Lime does kills off the poo smell. I'm no chemist so not sure how bad it could be if it wasn't poo.

Back to a question earlier on - why is it there?