What is this smell?
December 13, 2021 2:47 AM Subscribe
There's a weird smell coming through my vents. I think it's a dead animal but I'm not sure. Please help.
I moved into a new apartment which smelled great and clean, until about four days ago I began to smell something I thought was weed, but soon realized was not. It's there at all hours of the day, regardless of heat or cooling being on. It seems to be localized above the doorway to the bedroom, if you stand there it's absolutely overpowering, but it comes through all the vents on that side of the apartment (I can't smell it, for example, in my office or the bathroom which is not directly connected).
I would describe it as all of these things: metallic, sharp, medicinal, floral, rotting trash that keeps rotting more, tangy?, like a pigeon or a rat?, just truly so gross it is making my physically ill to be around. One maintenance guy told me he didn't smell anything, but it's getting worse by the day. The HVAC company I called suggested what I was describing was definitely a dead animal stuck in the wall. I live on the ground floor, if that matters.
To reiterate, everything smelled fine, it just appeared one day.
Help much appreciated! Whatever can be done to get rid of it I'm willing to do, especially since localized above my bedroom it's difficult to sleep.
Sub-question: as this is effecting my health, my building is required to take care of it, right?
I moved into a new apartment which smelled great and clean, until about four days ago I began to smell something I thought was weed, but soon realized was not. It's there at all hours of the day, regardless of heat or cooling being on. It seems to be localized above the doorway to the bedroom, if you stand there it's absolutely overpowering, but it comes through all the vents on that side of the apartment (I can't smell it, for example, in my office or the bathroom which is not directly connected).
I would describe it as all of these things: metallic, sharp, medicinal, floral, rotting trash that keeps rotting more, tangy?, like a pigeon or a rat?, just truly so gross it is making my physically ill to be around. One maintenance guy told me he didn't smell anything, but it's getting worse by the day. The HVAC company I called suggested what I was describing was definitely a dead animal stuck in the wall. I live on the ground floor, if that matters.
To reiterate, everything smelled fine, it just appeared one day.
Help much appreciated! Whatever can be done to get rid of it I'm willing to do, especially since localized above my bedroom it's difficult to sleep.
Sub-question: as this is effecting my health, my building is required to take care of it, right?
Did the maintenance guy have COVID sometime in the past year or so?
Vent cleaning is almost certainly your landlord’s responsibility, so an urgently worded letter to your landlord or building management would be quite reasonable. But for an urgent situation like this, if they are not fixing it, you might be able to pay for it yourself and then deduct from your next rent (local laws on this vary). At the least, if you have a reasonable relationship with your landlord and their representative maintenance person won’t do anything about it, you should be able to send them the vent cleaning bill, along with photos from the HVAC company that does the cleaning to document that there was a dead animal, and ask for reimbursement. (And if they refuse and it really is a dead animal stuck in your vent, you will almost certainly be able to follow whatever complaint process is available for tenants in your jurisdiction and get a court or tenancy board or whatever you have to award you the reimbursement.) Check with a local tenant’s rights group or legal aid for details specific to where you live if you need to know more about your rights around rent withholding or reimbursements.
posted by eviemath at 5:58 AM on December 13, 2021 [2 favorites]
Vent cleaning is almost certainly your landlord’s responsibility, so an urgently worded letter to your landlord or building management would be quite reasonable. But for an urgent situation like this, if they are not fixing it, you might be able to pay for it yourself and then deduct from your next rent (local laws on this vary). At the least, if you have a reasonable relationship with your landlord and their representative maintenance person won’t do anything about it, you should be able to send them the vent cleaning bill, along with photos from the HVAC company that does the cleaning to document that there was a dead animal, and ask for reimbursement. (And if they refuse and it really is a dead animal stuck in your vent, you will almost certainly be able to follow whatever complaint process is available for tenants in your jurisdiction and get a court or tenancy board or whatever you have to award you the reimbursement.) Check with a local tenant’s rights group or legal aid for details specific to where you live if you need to know more about your rights around rent withholding or reimbursements.
posted by eviemath at 5:58 AM on December 13, 2021 [2 favorites]
Sounds like a dead animal (rodent, probably) to me. Does your building have another maintenance person who could come out? If it's overpowering, either the person who "didn't smell it" was lying or couldn't smell generally. This is definitely your landlord's responsibility, and a health concern, so if maintenance is unhelpful you need to escalate.
posted by DoubleLune at 6:58 AM on December 13, 2021
posted by DoubleLune at 6:58 AM on December 13, 2021
Is there a....seafood-y note to it? If so, that might be an electrical thing. I once kept smelling something when I was up in the booth at one of my old theater companies, and people kept teasing me when I repeatedly complained that it smelled "like the grease trap over the oven in a clam shack" up there - until the day that we had a massive short-circuit knock out ALL of our onstage lights during a performance, and people realized that what I'd been smelling was actually the wiring slowly melting.
I've also smelled "dead animal rotting" (my cat once killed a mouse and left it behind my clothes hamper, and I didn't find it until five days later when I was all "ugh, what is that smell?" and went on a hunt). That was more of a floral note to it.
Either way I'd call the super or landlord again, but if there's a bit of a seafood smell to it, I'd be a little more urgent about it.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:45 AM on December 13, 2021 [3 favorites]
I've also smelled "dead animal rotting" (my cat once killed a mouse and left it behind my clothes hamper, and I didn't find it until five days later when I was all "ugh, what is that smell?" and went on a hunt). That was more of a floral note to it.
Either way I'd call the super or landlord again, but if there's a bit of a seafood smell to it, I'd be a little more urgent about it.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:45 AM on December 13, 2021 [3 favorites]
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posted by crocomancer at 3:46 AM on December 13, 2021