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?

It's probably skunk rather than plain old weed. It absolutely stinks (hence the name)

Nice smell of really pungent urine.
I love the smell of weed.

Could it be eco-nappies in some sort of eco bin? I find babies poop can be gross but sweet smelling.
people from all walks of life smoke weed if it’s that, for many different reasons.

It's probably general dirtiness everywhere
The only time I've noticed this myself was hot days when the old lady next door's windows were open. This awful stale smell. It's dirty clothes, dirty house, unwashed bodies, smelly feet all rolled into one? Possible also clothes dried indoors? Not surprising when all she got was carers 4x day to sort her out as quickly as possible, who knows what happened about housework etc.

Great minds think alike. I was about to suggest this!

It sounds more like a combination of all sorts of things previous posters have suggested including trapped cooking smells, old frying oil, filthy carpets & soft furnishings, dirty nappies, rubbish bags not being taken out often enough in the heat, unwashed clothes.
One of my neighbours as a reeking flat (but that includes weed/tobacco) and I can smell it from one floor above. I've had to go down to complain about excessive noise more than once and the pong is even in the hallway outside - when they opened the door it was nauseating.

And of course it might also be smelly drains/slow running water through pipes. When I first moved in to my flat, the pipes behind the dishwasher blocked and when the plumber fixed it the smell was horrific. Just years of rotting food debris had built up and clogged the pipes.

Dry rot.

Honestly sounds like weed. I'm sitting on the sofa windows and doors open and can smell burning plastic. Hope to god nothing around here has gone on fire again. 🙈

If they have chickens, it could be disinfectant. I used to live on a chicken farm and we had to have buckets of disinfectant to dip our wellies into, which gave off a horrible musty smell. I don't actually know whether people with a few chickens at the end of the garden have to do this, but with bird flu restrictions on birds going outside they might have to. Or perhaps they're manuring the garden with chicken poo and that's what you're smelling!

Yeah I like the smell of normal weed (up to 4% THC) but skunk (10 - 14% THC) really does smell awful

I feel really sorry for you OP if that is what it is.

I’m wondering now if they are growing weed but I really just can’t believe it’s that. I’m LOLing at the jam comments yes I know the two can coexist but their lifestyle is just old before their time 😂 We went round a couple of months ago with our other neighbours and on the way back my other neighbour said to me that their house smelt of cat urine and how awful it was.. It was very strong and that could play a part in it but it’s not only that because the smell just isn’t the same for me as cat urine, not on its own anyway. I’ve had cats and know what weed smells like when it’s smoked (but maybe not when growing?) I’m racking my brains to try and think of a way to describe it to you all and the only things that I think kinda sum it up is sweet, stale, maybe ratty 🤢, like grease, cheap food.. just so so stale! Like the back of a motorway services that’s not been ventilated in 1000 years!!! X

Dirty nappies being stored badly? Baby poo can smell sweet but sickening too…

It's probably skunk rather than plain old weed. It absolutely stinks (hence the name)

I smoke weed but wouldn't touch skunk with a bargepole. The smell of it made me draw back in horror when I smelt it.

Luckily it's legalised where I live.

OP, I hope you get to the bottom of it soon.

Honestly I would ask her if she has smelled I something awful between your two houses. Play dumb and stress that you can’t have your windows open and are thinking of contacting environmental health to see if they can get to the bottom of it. She might connect the dots and realise it’s coming from them!

Weed smells like weed and nothing else and that's it. It's pretty distinctive so unless op has never smelt weed before she would be able to identify it. The fact that she's a doctors receptionist means nothing. I've known primary school teachers, laywers, High flying corporate ceos that smoke every single day. It's just the stereotypical ones that don't bother to hide it. Every one on this thread will know a secret smoker and not realise it.

^ This.

I have a friend and her house always stinks like a kind of stale nastiness.

Hops and weed do smell quite similar.

On that note, desperados definitely smells like weed when you crack a fresh one open!

OP, my ex was an alcoholic and used to hide cans of beer around the house and our house smelled sickly sweet because of the dregs of beer in the bottom of cans going warm.

This amped up after my son was born.

It could be that they're drinking and hiding the evidence.

My ex was too ashamed to take the cans to the bin because of the sheer volume.

Weed smells extremely similar to burning sage in my opinion OP - in my opinion its an unmistakable smell, very earthy and strong. If you've smell it once you won't forget it!

I'm guessing it could be something in their kitchen, either their cooker or certain food they cook maybe

There is a smell similar to your description that comes from living in filth. I have visited a lot of houses in my job and when you get people that don't clean, there is a build up of organic matter, hair, skin cells and dirt that turns to a sort of acrid but sweet smelling brown goop on every surface.

It is a unique smell.

Pressed too soon.

I had a co worker and she asked me to move an item of furniture for her as I have a van. She was younger than me and physically well but her house clearly had never been cleaned since she moved into it ten years prior. After shifting the item, I could smell the smell of her filthy house on my clothes even after I had washed them.

Her husband used to get changed for work in his shed and keep his work clothes in the shed. He was always immaculate while she always stunk like the house. The whole thing was bizarre.

@cheekychatta Depends on how old it is, and which bit is decomposing. Sorry, I know that's gross. Rotting meat releases cadaverine and putrescine as the proteins break down. They have a nasty cloying sweetness to them, sickly and rotten, but not really earthy or musty. They don't smell like weed. Both compounds can also be present in very bad breath, the kind that makes your stomach flip. Humans have evolved to find both repulsive, with good reason.

If she’s a smoker it’s weed!!

OP, if they've had problems with cat urine, it might be that they've used enzyme sprays, and perhaps over done it. We have one patch on the sofa, thankfully down the side and away from regular use, where boy cat peed and I treated it with enzyme spray. I don't think I aired it properly after, because there's a strange stagnant sweet smell, just in that spot. Better than the smell of cat piss, but still not a smell I'd have chosen!

Does the smell come from them? If you stood next to them would you be able to smell the smell?9

I worked with a guy who smelt so bad. Went to his house one day and realised it was a deep fat fryer permeating all his clothes. It doesn't smell how you think it would and its rank.

Oh god some of your stories are mega!! Well I think I’d prefer cat piss to their smell..
ive never smelt it before and I don’t remember remarking on it when our previous neighbours were there. I suppose I’m hoping for a specific cause but tbh based on when I’ve been round there I fear it’s just filth that’s built up! For which there’s no real solution 🤢
l think as an initial port of call I will ask if she has a fryer and say there’s a smell. Depending on what she says to that I will see what’s next!

Interested also in what dry rot smells like?? The houses are old.. chalk stone and timber frame. No inkling of mould in the smell though. X

Ew I don't know what weed PPs have been smoking but you shouldn't be able to confuse it with old oil, dead bodies or cat piss 🤢