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?

Not read the whole thread OP but could it be a dead rat? Under the floorboards? This happened to a friend once, the smell was horrendous but eventually disappeared (presumably after it had decomposed completely).

My thinking is that this is either an issue to do with fabrics and clothes that are not properly laundered, and/or a wastewater problem.

"musty but sweet": it sounds a bit like the smell when you leave clothes wet piled and then dry them. Again, if you have a wastewater drainage problem, you can have sitting water that starts to taint objects that come into contact with it -- it's often an issue with dishwashers.

It remains me of the time we had a big dead rat under the floor. A sickly sweet musty smell. I'd put money on something dead. Sorry!

Does your neighbour suffer any ailments OP? Asthma? Ongoing cough? Skin rashes?

i've got a new potential idea...

If they have a new baby, could it be some sickly over-perfumed nappy bags? Then left out back door ready for bin? Some do smell quote strong! Maybe that mixed with the unclean oven??

I once lived in a new build flat & I could smell cooking from the people below. Then a bloke moved in next door to them who smoked both fags & weed. We could sometimes smell it in the hall of our flat, & outside in the hall way. I don’t think it’s weed OP, as the bloke then began to smell so much worse. I’ve never smelled anything quite like it before in my life. It got so bad that when he opened his front door the smell would escape & linger like a thick fog. We stopped inviting him in as our flat would smell for 3 days after he’d been round. My H used to pop down to his flat on occasions & he’d come back smelling so bad that his clothes had to go straight in the wash. If workmen had to do anything in all the flats you could smell him on them when they got to ours.

Patchouli oil? That smells of old hippy?

Strong sweet sickly smell is weed.. It
Stinks and the morons smoking it are a bloody nightmare! I had this for a few months in my old home and it's bloody awful!

Def mice or rats

Oops sent too soon. It’s just their unwashed bodies & filthy home. Occasionally I can smell the sweet sickly smell which is some sort of air freshener he uses to try & mask it all. Of course it’s mixed in with his smell so it’s vile as you will know.

Surely everyone recognises the smell of weed?

I don’t; I have never smelled it as far as I am aware but even l know it has as a distinctive, sweet smell.

Sounds like weed. We have the awful smell here because my landlord or previous tenant was growing it according to the neighbours and I can’t for the life of me find the source to where it is coming from or where they grew it before we moved in. It smells musty upstairs and I’ve begged the council to check the attic because it stinks. It’s making us all ill but they don’t care even though they could smell it too. My landlords a jackass though

Many people smoke weed instead of drinking alcohol and many only smoke tobacco occasionally. I think they're weed heads.

Could be a dead mouse or rat under floorboards or something. Why don’t you try asking them? Say you have noticed an unpleasant smell in your flat recently and you wonder if they have the same problem?

Defo weed.

But they might not necessarily be smoking it like a cigarette. I knew an idiot who did a bucket it the bathroom 🙄 they reckoned that way it didn't harm their kids...🙄🙄

Can't fix stupid.

Kids spent their days stoned and social services never visited, despite my calls.

A lot of professional people smoke weed to unwind and don't see it as any different to drinking, so their occupations are irrelevant.

I did have a client who had dead rats in the roof space of their office after they were poisoned, that they could not remove, and that was a sickly sweet smell while they rotted, that was not nice..

You'd be surprised by the amount of professional people who smoke weed whilst making jam.

Do you need to know what the smell is to progress it?

Just thinking your diplomatic way forward here would be to ask if they have noticed an odd smell and whether you could jointly investigate drains or similar... Give them some plausible deniability if it is weed.

It sounds nothing like weed. It sounds like dirt, it's hard to explain dirty dirt smell. It's when someone opens door and it's deep in all the furniture, the carpets, the clothes, the wallpaper and furniture. It's the smell of a home that is not only not cleaned but also not treated well. Dropped food never picked up, pee left around the toilet, walk around with outdoor shoes on. That sort of grubby smell. No advice though, sorry.

I make jam and smoke weed 🤷‍♀️

One of the biggest drug users i know is a Doctors receptionist

Sounds vile, hope you're not going to eat that jam! Do they have dogs? Sound like pet stink plus fat frying plus all the above things. Some people just have stinky houses and don't notice, I used to have a private student, smartly dressed woman, well paid job, lived in nice area. Went to her house for one lesson, lovely big fancy house, expensive stuff, but I nearly passed out from the stench when I entered. I actually gagged and pretended it was just a frog in my throat. You would never dream she lived like that. Never went again!

Weed. My NDN smokes it in the garden and it makes me retch.

i have a neighbour with the same issue.

I can always smell when the back door/ window are open as the smell from their home HITS me. Smells like food/ body odour/ old laundry and staleness mixed in one.

it’s revolting