Smell from my neighbour's flat

[smellyneighbour]

NC for this.

Short version: every time my neighbour opens her doors or windows it stinks. It’s so bad I can’t use my patio or keep my windows open.

Full rant: I have this thing about opening my windows every morning - even in winter. Fresh air is critical to my mental health and wellbeing. I’ve always done this. Indeed, I wouldn’t chose to live a house where I couldn’t open the windows and I checked all of them in this flat before we bought it in October.

In addition to windows that open , we are also lucky enough to have a small patio / garden area off the living room which my small kids use daily. This backs onto my neighbour’s patio. During lockdown we noticed that her large dog poos in her patio and she doesn’t clean it up. Gross. We started staying away from the boundary between our patio and hers because it smells of dog poo, but it wasn’t too bad. I bought planters for the border and convinced myself I could live with this situation.

Fast forward to lockdown. Neighbour starts opening her doors and windows. It STINKS. A mixture of dog, stale tobacco and incense. It gets into everything. If our windows are open the smell takes over our whole flat. I can’t go into the garden when her door is open because the smell makes me wretch. Now lockdown is loosening, I’d love to have friends and family over on the patio (you can get to it without going through the flat) but I can’t because if she opens her door (which she now does a lot!) the smell will be overwhelming.

She’s nice. We say hello etc. But I don’t know her to understand if she has mental health issues or is just totally oblivious to the gross smell coming from her home. My husband agrees it’s totally gross and he’d tell me if I was being a drama queen.

Would AIBU to say something? And if so what should I say?

This is not an adult ss issue. The council would be inundated if they had to complete and assessment for everyone who smelt or lived in a smelly home. If it’s privately owned I doubt environmental health would do anything unless there is a serious risk to health, life or limb. You best bet is to have a gentle word with her ask her if she’s ok as you noticed a strong smell coming from her flat and wanted to make sure there are no issues with drains etc or report to the RSPCA hay the dogs may be being neglected. These kind of issues are deep rooted and very hard to resolve

I really feel for you, you have to say something or contact environmental health if possible.

in our old village I nipped over to a neighbours to borrow milk, I have NEVER smelt anything like it. I was actually gagging. A mix of dirty dogs, dog piss, general household diet and rotting meat (the dh is a gamekeeper, counter had 4 very decomposing birds). How they determine the neighbours lived like that is beyond me

This isn’t a social care issue. Some people are just mingers and you won’t be able to change her lifestyle. You either shame them in to changing their mindset ( unlikely) or you move way. Moving is costly so I get it’s not the easiest solution but you cannot control the socially inept.
Spraying disinfectant over the fence would help you but guess who would end up in court?

Can you not just spray water under her fence late at night to wash it away 😑

I'm probably in a minority of one, but the incense would bother me more than the dog poo! It makes my nose run like a tap for some reason.

I'd definitely ask her to clear up the dog poo, it must attract flies by the thousand.

No where in the OP does it suggest this woman isn't taking care of herself. Are people seriously suggesting social services because this woman has a dog/the associated smell that comes with a dog, burns incense and smokes in her house so it smells? She obviously can't smell it but that doesn't necessarily mean she's living in squalor. Leaving dog poo doesn't mean she needs ss, as OP says she walks the dog 3 times a day so I'm assuming it's just laziness and she isn't physically incapable of picking it up. Contacting social services would be a complete waste of valuable resources.

Op you just need to speak to her, if she doesn't clean up the dog shit then contact EH. I'm not sure there's much you can do about the smell from inside her house.

Maybe rebt it out and rent somewhere else yourself?

Oh good idea. Who cares about the poor sods you get to move in there. Let them put up with the shitty smell and if they want something better, they can buy their own place. It is the Mumsnet way.

It's really helped just reading all your responses - this was making me stressed out - so thank you!

For whoever said that the incense was worse than the dog poo - I agree! I am going to tackle that and the poo with her because it is gross. Will speak to other neighbours first.

This weekend I'm going with Citronella candles - SUCH a good suggestion.

Thank you all!

Would it be possible to erect a tall fence panel or something from your property wall towards your patio, that might 'deflect' the waft of smelly air coming from her flat?

Retch

You’d need to be up front

Dog shit, Tell her bluntly it’s making your garden stink

Re incense, tell her you’re asthmatic