Rotten Eggs smell in condo, what to do? (house, landlords, clause)
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I have been renting a small condo for almost 3 months now. There have been a lot of problems (mainly, sewage backing up into the kitchen sinks, A/C flooding the hallway multiple times). Additionally, there's a strong rotten egg smell in the hall bathroom that comes and goes. The property manager has been very good about taking care of things so far, althoughI've been told by the workers that the problems above are likely to happen again at some time, because there seems to be drainage/plumbing issues causing them.
I am concerned about the sewage smell in the bathroom. So I emailed the landlord with this issue, and his response was that he asked the HOA manager to call me (which hasn't happened yet). I have done my research and am aware of the dangers of methane and hydrogen sulfide in sewer gases. Although it may not be related (or it may - who knows?), me and my two children (6 and 2 years old) have been sick with a respiratory illness (bad cough, in my case - coughing up fluid in lungs, no fevers, running nose, and irritated eyes) for 4 weeks. I started staying with my parents a week ago now, and our symptoms have gone away.
So now I am going to speak with the HOA guy, but I'm curious as to why the landlord isn't interested in sending a plumber out to see if it's the toilet seal, or the P-pipe, etc. I have a feeling this HOA guy is not going to do much about things, but we shall see.
What would be my recourse if this doesn't get resolved? I'm under a lease, although there is a clause saying I can break it if I supply 2 months worth of extra rent ($2k total). Not wanting to do that for a health concern, obviously, should my next options be to get the air tested and possibly contact the health department? Not doing any of this yet, mind you, but keeping my options in mind.
I have been renting a small condo for almost 3 months now. There have been a lot of problems (mainly, sewage backing up into the kitchen sinks, A/C flooding the hallway multiple times). Additionally, there's a strong rotten egg smell in the hall bathroom that comes and goes. The property manager has been very good about taking care of things so far, althoughI've been told by the workers that the problems above are likely to happen again at some time, because there seems to be drainage/plumbing issues causing them.
I am concerned about the sewage smell in the bathroom. So I emailed the landlord with this issue, and his response was that he asked the HOA manager to call me (which hasn't happened yet). I have done my research and am aware of the dangers of methane and hydrogen sulfide in sewer gases. Although it may not be related (or it may - who knows?), me and my two children (6 and 2 years old) have been sick with a respiratory illness (bad cough, in my case - coughing up fluid in lungs, no fevers, running nose, and irritated eyes) for 4 weeks. I started staying with my parents a week ago now, and our symptoms have gone away.
So now I am going to speak with the HOA guy, but I'm curious as to why the landlord isn't interested in sending a plumber out to see if it's the toilet seal, or the P-pipe, etc. I have a feeling this HOA guy is not going to do much about things, but we shall see.
What would be my recourse if this doesn't get resolved? I'm under a lease, although there is a clause saying I can break it if I supply 2 months worth of extra rent ($2k total). Not wanting to do that for a health concern, obviously, should my next options be to get the air tested and possibly contact the health department? Not doing any of this yet, mind you, but keeping my options in mind.
Thanks for reading, and for any advice.
Does landlord live nearby, if so ask him to come over and look at it. Trouble with HOAs in general. They are not landlords or in property management business. Your owner should be fixing it or dealing with HOA.
We had same problems in our condo and we hired a sewer/pipe cleaner company to automatically clean the sewer pipe every 3 months.
Just call the health dept. right away. I've done that about a few places, one an HOA. The health dept always responded quickly and they were the ones that took care of testing, not us.
I know a business office where it smelled like rotten eggs and the secretary said oh, she just makes hardboiled eggs in the office every morning, the boss loves them. Yes, right. A plumber, who was with me at the time and not there for plumbing work on the office, said it was the sewage. The buildings were connected so someone didn't want the expense and complaints of tearing out walls to two offices to locate the break.
I was in a small restaurant that smelled like that and no one really thought much about it except me and my friends. We left. It turned out to be a pipe exhausted through the roof that was covered with snow and not really able to exhaust.
I called the health dept on a store that smelled like that. Each time they took the meat off the shelves and scoured the meat dept and deli dept. Then it came back. It wasn't until the third go round that I know of that someone figured out it was not the meat it was a pipe in the long wall they needed to correct.
Had to email my landlord again, this time he had a plumber call me (that's the good news).
I've been out of the condo for 2 weeks, but we slept there last night. Smell came back at 10am this morning. The plumber is coming out this week to change the seal around the toilet. He said that outside of that, they would need to do a smoke test (which would involve multiple units and cost $2000). The plumber said he didn't think they would agree to do it because of the cost.
So, I figure, give them a chance to fix it. If the toilet seal doesn't fix it, and they won't do a smoke test, then call the health dept.
Rotten egg odor is generally added to natural gas to alert residence of a possible leak. Have you checked this route out yet? I just want to point that out even though i know probably know this. A gas leak could be disastrous so if you haven't checked this out please do so immediately.
Excellent point, 02blackgt. The fact that it comes and goes may be more the sewage issue but a good thing to add to one's list.
Another, for those reading, but not for this case I would think, is oil based paint not yet completely dry meeting with heat. When we first had this using the toaster caused the escaping gas smell (which I don't smell as rotten eggs, but rather an acrid chemical odor but I understand many do smell rotten eggs/sulfur) and using the dryer made the clothes smell like gas. That time we called the gas company who sent someone out immediately. The odor when we used the toaster several yards from what was painted made us aware of unseen chemicals travelling on the air some distance and showing up in unexpected places.
The gas company has a meter to read. The guy arrived in Hawaiian shirt and shorts and flip flops. It was his turn on call. First thing he asked on his way in was did we use oil based paint lately. His meter showed no gas leak. Another time we called the gas company when it was probably an animal that died somewhere in a large old house.
The gas company guy never minded because he said he got paid double ... and triple for certain days and times....after certain hours and on weekends.
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