Awful smell in apartment hallway? What can I do?

[Atmywitsend23]

Just that really, moved into an apartment complex this week (I’m privately renting if relevant) which has a shared communal hallway. The apartment building is owned by the local housing authority but some are private rentals like mine. The smell in the hallway is SO strong (think fishy rotting sewage). I’ve noticed others have small gel air fresheners outside their door but is there anything else that can be done to stop the smell coming inside my apartment? If the local HA won’t investigate, what else can I do? My landlord can’t do anything as they don’t own the building, just the flat

Is there a bakerlite light fitting? The heat from the bulb can cause a fishy smell when the bakelite degrades.

Has anyone actually reported it to the housing association? Your landlord as property leaseholder should be reporting the issue to them.

They should at least investigate it to ensure there is not a sewage leak

If it is the light fitting then it will dissipate in time (we had that issue in an old flat with a rubbish landlord who needed to be dragged to fix anything and it went by the time he actually came to replace it)

Thank you for the replies! Definitely isn’t the light fitting (which is almost unfortunate because then at least we’d know what the problem was)! I sent an email to the housing association today but they’re out of office until the 6th

It is possible that the housing association will only deal with the leaseholder (eg your landlord) so if you don't get a response, he needs to engage with them.

Are all the flats definitely in use and have people coming and going? Is it possible that someone has passed away? If so then the police can do a check.