Decision Report 201600192

Summary

Mr C, a council tenant, complained that he had been experiencing odours in his house for several years and he believed that these odours were coming from his next door neighbour's house. Mr C complained that the council had not taken reasonable steps to investigate and stop the odour ingress.

During the investigation, we carefully reviewed all the information provided by Mr C and the council. We found that the council had carried out a number of investigations and repairs, including installing air quality monitoring equipment and using a smoke machine to determine where the odours were ingressing, sealing stair treads and skirting boards, replastering walls, and repairing the solum (the area underneath the floorboards). Whilst we found that the council had taken reasonable action to investigate the odours and make repairs to the house, we recommended that the council consider whether there was any further action they could take as a smoke bomb test had revealed some ingress from one house into another.

Recommendations

We recommended that the council:

• consider whether there are any further actions available to them that would be appropriate to implement in this case, given the results of the smoke bomb test.