My neighbours really smell…heeelp

[sjxoxo]

I can see the ridiculousness of my issue BUT the smell is becoming unbearable for me to live with. We are attached on their side so our houses are joined.
The houses are very old- ours is having some renovations done, theirs was done several years ago so they’re not doing any work or anything like that. There is this horrendous stench from their house and I can’t for the life of me understand what it is. They are in their 30s and just had a baby like us, we are friendly. I can tell when their back door is open because I can smell the smell.. I have racked my brains as to the source but I just can’t think what it could be- it is quite a specific type of smell, kind of musty but sweet. Its constant, so not occasionally there- I can smell it any time their doors are open. I don’t think it’s a ‘rotting’ smell but it does make me feel a bit queasy; it’s thick, heavy and smells very very stale. Sort of sweet but not in a nice way. I wondered if they could be cooking with a certain type of oil or a fryer. I’ve never had one so can’t compare. I’ve been into their house before several times and it’s overpowering to me inside - it’s quite dirty (I don’t mean that as in insult) and their kitchen is on our side of the house; I can smell very strongly when she is cooking with her oven and the smell then is like an oven that’s full of grease and never been cleaned. You know when people have ‘their’ smell in their homes - obviously we all do and they are just that - it’s like theirs is really really intense and something is off with it. I don’t know if the smell is related to the oven; i have mentioned to her before that I can smell her oven and she did try and improve that but I just am at my wits end with it & don’t know what to do! I have these horrible thoughts we’ll all be on a Netflix doc in 20 years talking about something very sinister!!!! Heeeelp. Anyone have any similar stories or manky smells? Should I say something? What would you do?

Ask if they have mice because you can smell a really disgusting stench. Say it’s really overpowering. Then offer to go and have a sniff and you’ll know whereabouts it’s coming from and can tell them.

Do they have any medical conditions that might cause some unusual smells? Just a thought.Some babies nappies smell,er,distinctive.
Years ago before jackets and coats were machine washable, there often used to be a bit of a pong on the bus, from malodorous coats,a kind of damp,sweaty, cigarette,maybe a bit damp doggy( no judgement I have 2 cats and a house bunny) oh dear painting a grim picture.But yes, general unwashed clothes?
Maybe their drains need clearing?
Or indeed,weed.

I really don’t think it’s weed. I think I’d know if it was! They wouldn’t even go on a night out- they are very reserved, I would say ‘old before their time.’

I know some people like this. They never go out because they prefer to stay home smoking weed!

I was convinced our neighbours were growing weed as I could smell it very strongly in one of our bedrooms.

Turns out it was mould on our wall behind the furniture. Discovered it when we were packing to move!

Did you eat the jam 😱

Its probably deep fat fryer. A friend of mine used one a few times a week and it would linger on everything forever. It was so overpowering. Even after washing her clothes etc it remained.

She looked after my children once and the was in their hair, clothing, bags etc even their skin smelt. I had to wash their clothing twice and I could still smell it. I never went into her house but I can image how bad it was. Even after a full day at work you could smell it across the office, I'm not exaggerating. It does have a sweet but greasy smell.

I think it’s rats, if next door has chickens, they are attracted to chickens feed and to their eggs.

Sounds like a call to health visitors office just to check everything is ok for the sake of the baby. If it’s incense they shouldn’t be burning it with baby lungs, it’s it’s cats piss then that s also a worry, if it’s weed then Hell no and baby needs to be saved.

My only thought through all this is, if the house smells that bad and your worried about the hygiene of it, then why do you go around/have food from them?

I don’t think you could refuse the jam she made you but did you eat it? If it was me and the house smelt that bad, I couldn’t eat it or go around and drink from the cups/glasses etc!

Tbh my first thought was heroin or dead mice. Weed has almost a sweaty smell but heroin when smoked is sweet and sickly and mice give off this god awful smell. I used to do home visits when I worked for CSC and some houses just smell from filth but those 3 smells you never forget.
What ever it is, you can contact environmental health to come to yours and claim you think the smell is from your house and that you ca t locate the source. They will soon tell you

Did we really need their distinct occupations to nearly out them @sjxoxo

But she smokes cigarettes, despite having a tiny baby and making her own jam

It sounds like a missing bottle of formula/milk that has turned sour to me

Missed the chickens. It could well be chicken poop which is sweet but then as it rots gives off ammonia. It's great fertilizer you can't put it on until the ammonia dies away. Are they putting the it on the garden, building compost heaps. We had a lot of hens so cleaned out regularly.

I got used to the sweet smell but mother of god the ammonia stage

backyardpoultry.iamcountryside.com/coops/poultry-litter-treatment/#:~:text=The%20Problem,gives%20off%20a%20pungent%20smell.

It sounds like a missing bottle of formula/milk that's gone sour to me

😂😂😂

If it's so filthy that it smells, it's unhealthy for an infant. Perhaps an anonymous call to a child protection Profesional is in order? And yes, I'm quite serious.

Sounds daft but if they have a baby could that be baby poo…?

Smoking weed isn’t confined to seedy immoral people OP. We used to live next door to a retired dentist, living in a large house and respected in the community, and he used to sit in his garden smoking weed every day. We could smell it - very distinctive smell.

I am thinking that perhaps the smell from the oven is rancid grease or something else that has degraded.
I don’t know how you would go about broaching the subject with your neighbor, but you have my sympathies. Maybe you could just tell her you’re thinking about moving, and let it finally come out that it’s the smell that really bothers you. If you’re friendly and non-accusatory about it, maybe she’ll want to do something about it.

I used to work in a school where one room smelled of sweet sickly rotting food waste.I literally had to hold my breath.i thought it must be where the kids ate and there was stale food ground into the carpet or something.It turned out to be water ingress through the roof rotting something (it didn't smell like typical wood rotting smell at all) If it's an old house, ime they have all kinds of unpleasant decaying smell

I think it’s very bizarre that you told her you could ‘smell her oven’ 😱

The trouble is that if they live with it they are getting very used to it and may hardly notice it at all. If you are friendly, can you not take a nose around inside?!
It could be damp, animals or lack of hygeine. Perhaps they do some butchery or stuff animals. (There was a 'Doc Martin' episode on that!) However, it could well be spicy cooking.
I bought a nice 2-year old show house once and it always smelled funny. An elderly couple lived there and it basically reeked of fish for years until I redecorated everything.
A possibility is not cleaning under appliances, especially cookers and fridges, or allowing washing machines to clog up and sink U tubes to leak. Dead mice or birds (even rats) are also a problem and fungal damp.

They sound like back to nature neighbours The Good Life. I hope it's not fungal rot because @sjxoxo lives in the other half of the semi. Rotting down compost, chickens, chicken poop, what's fine on a detached house in the country isn't great in suburbia. Rats will love it though

I agree. Weed is related to hops so there's possibly something in that. I love the smell of weed personally. Can't imagine what the stench is OP. My freind puffs profusely & her house doesn't smell that pungent. I'd ask them outright in a nice way if they're 'puffers'.