Sewer smell at the entrance: where to go and where to complain

Strong sewer smell in the entrance - where to go if the basement stinks? In this article we will consider the possibilities of solving this unpleasant situation.

An apartment building is a complex structure in which each apartment is indirectly connected to adjacent rooms and to the entrance. The microclimate in residential premises depends on the sanitary condition of all auxiliary and service areas of the house. Very often, residents have no idea what to do if there is a disgusting smell of sewage in the entrance, where to go and to whom to complain. This is far from an idle question, since a bad smell negatively affects people’s well-being, deprives them of comfort, and reduces their standard of living. Moreover, the basement almost always stinks of sewage in the apartment, especially on the lower floors. Measures must be taken immediately, but few people know what to do. This is a general housing and communal services problem that concerns all residents of apartment buildings.

Reasons for the appearance of a bad smell in the entrance

The smell of sewerage in the entrance indicates a leak or depressurization of the sewer riser. When a specific odor appears, you must first determine why and where it comes from. Most often it stinks from the basement, but other options are possible:

destruction of the vent pipe in the attic;
a breakthrough of the sewer riser into the ceiling and the entry of waste into the gap between the slabs.

The drain in the basement of an apartment building may become clogged or simply rotten, causing a spill of sewage and waste. In this case, the strongest smell will be felt in the area of the first floor. If the problem occurs in the attic, then sewer gases will first spread throughout its territory, exit through the roof into the street, and will penetrate into all entrances. This option is easy to detect by the increasing smell in the area of the upper floors.

The most difficult thing is to determine the breakthrough of drains into the interfloor ceiling. Most likely, one of the apartments will begin to flood, but this is sometimes difficult to detect, since the water does not flow in a stream, and the wet spot is often covered by a suspended or suspended ceiling.

The question often arises: there is a strong sewer smell in the bathroom, where to go and how to get rid of it. In this situation, there is no need to immediately call somewhere or run; first you need to check the condition of the siphons and water seals - perhaps they have been torn off and biogas from the sewer is leaking into the bathroom. You should also carefully inspect the ceiling - perhaps the neighbor above is drowning.

Legal point of view on the issue

According to the rules and regulations for the operation of apartment buildings in our country, which were approved back in 2003, the organization involved in maintaining an apartment building must take systematic measures to ensure normal temperature and humidity conditions in the basements. This should prevent condensation from forming on internal structural elements and the formation of mold.

In addition, organizations serving the housing stock are required by law to ensure the cleanliness of basements and easy access to any communications located in them. Protection must also be provided against the entry of unauthorized people, small animals and rodents into the basement.

It is necessary to block access to the basement for rodents.

Utilities must also ensure proper ventilation in basements and crawl spaces through exhaust vents and openings, as well as any other available devices.

The Housing Code of the Russian Federation contains Article 161, which clearly states that the management of multi-storey residential buildings must provide extremely safe and comfortable living conditions for citizens, which requires proper maintenance of public property in the building, including basements.

That is why, if there is a sewer smell at home that has nothing to do with the operation of pipes and other communications inside the apartment, and clearly comes from the basement, you must immediately contact the utility services or management company. The relevant organization must take measures to eliminate the unpleasant odor that disrupts comfortable living in an apartment building.

Who is responsible for the sanitary condition of entrances?

Full responsibility for the cleanliness and sanitary condition in the entrance and in general in any office premises of a residential building lies with the employees of the Management Company. When the apartment stinks of sewage, where to complain is clear. Another thing is that you first need to find out the cause and culprit of this situation. It is quite possible that the plumbing fixtures in the apartment are not installed correctly and there are no water seals. In this case, eliminating the smell is the responsibility of the apartment owner himself. It’s another matter if the entrance smells like sewage, where to complain in this case - only to the management company. This is her household, the condition of the entrances is entirely under the jurisdiction of the management company.

what to do

Moisture

An unpleasant odor may appear as a result of moisture accumulation in the basement of an apartment building. This can occur due to the penetration of melt water through the basement flooring.

If melt water stagnates due to an incorrectly installed building foundation, the solution to this problem is carried out at the expense of the residents of the apartment building. If desired, the owners can make claims against the developer.

ATTENTION! The management company is not responsible for defects resulting from construction work carried out in bad faith.

Moisture that has accumulated in the basement in small quantities should evaporate naturally. If previous owners made changes to the basement ventilation system, air flow must be restored. This should be done by the management company in agreement with the residents of the house. Material costs are paid by apartment owners.

Worn-out sewer systems in older buildings often require major repairs. The date of planned repair work can be found on the Internet.

What to do if you notice an odor

If a bad smell appears in the entrance, you must contact the Management Company and describe the situation. As a rule, its employees immediately take measures to eliminate problems that arise. This is primarily in their best interest, since sewer leaks in the basement pose an ever-increasing danger. If action is not taken immediately, after some time the problem will grow to enormous proportions. Usually, a verbal complaint that the entrance smells like sewage is enough, but the management company employees know what to do. Usually, the basement is immediately inspected, a leak is found, the size of the leak is determined, and measures are taken to completely eliminate the problem.

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What to do

If the smell from the basement is not very strong, then there is time for a longer disassembly and search for a responsible person who is obliged to eliminate the cause of this phenomenon. Complications may arise if there is a cadaverous stench or a chemical stench.

In this case, residents must take immediate action against the management company that has violated the contract for the maintenance of an apartment building. According to the law, owners can change the management company at any time.

IMPORTANT! In order to change the management company, residents of the house can organize and hold a general meeting.

It is not always possible to gather the required number of residents of a multi-storey building to hold a meeting regarding the failure of the management company to fulfill its obligations to maintain the building. Therefore, residents are increasingly choosing other methods of influencing malicious violators of the contract:

Submitting complaints orally and in writing to various authorities.
Warning the management company about the possible termination of the existing contract.
Calling emergency services.
Organizing an inspection of the basement by the sanitary and epidemiological service.
Involvement of supervisory authorities in solving the problem.
Assessment of the current condition of the sewerage system and pipeline by third-party plumbers and obtaining an inspection report in a certified written form.

In order to provide reliable information to the management company, it is advisable to analyze the situation, take photos and submit them to the management campaign.

Where to complain if there are no positive results

Sometimes there is strange opposition from management company employees who do not want to act and do not make contact with the residents of the problematic entrance. The situation is stuck at a “dead point”: the entrance continues to smell of sewage, residents are trying to achieve some action, but no result is achieved. Let’s figure out what to do in such a situation and where to complain about the smell of sewerage in the entrance if we can’t get anything from the management company. There are three options for the development of events:

application to court;
letter to the prosecutor's office;
complaint to the housing inspectorate.

There is often advice to go straight to court or the prosecutor's office, they will sort it out and severely punish the perpetrators. This is correct, but the desired result will not be obtained. The fact is that both the court and the prosecutor’s office are powerful, but extremely slow-acting structures. The case may take several months to be considered, depending on the workload of these organizations. During this entire period, the state of the microclimate in the entrance and apartments of the problem building will not change at all.

The most correct decision would be to contact the housing inspectorate. This is the most painful and dangerous option for management company employees, since the housing inspectorate has all the necessary rights. As you know, the Management Company is a private enterprise, and the housing inspectorate has the power, on the basis of a justified complaint from the residents of the building, to suspend or completely terminate the license issued to its owner. In addition, the housing inspectorate deals only with housing and communal services issues, is not loaded with other tasks and solves all problems quickly and efficiently. Therefore, when choosing where to turn for help, you need to understand that the result will be obtained in any case, only sometimes it happens after a long period of time.

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Where to go for help?

According to the law, the management company or other organization servicing the house is responsible for the condition of the basement.
These structures should be contacted if an odor is detected in the basement. Workers are required to quickly respond to the call, eliminate the cause of the breakthrough, clean the premises, and do not forget to replace leaking pipes.

Also, at the end of the work, disinfection after a breakthrough.

The first step is to contact the company responsible for the home. At first you can just call, even several times. If there is no response, you should go personally to the reception office of the Criminal Code or Housing Office and write a complaint. A sample complaint document must be provided on site. Complaints must be registered; this may be useful in court proceedings due to a leak in the basement. You can also send your appeal by mail, registered mail with registration.
A written complaint usually elicits a quick response. A team of craftsmen arrives on site to eliminate the odor and the cause of its occurrence.
If employees of the housing and communal services or management company refuse to solve the problem, you need to go further - to the housing inspectorate or any other city regulatory body.
A universal option that can be used if the management company is passive is Rospotrebnadzor . This organization also accepts written complaints and registers them.

ATTENTION! Lawyers recommend filing an individual complaint; it will be considered faster. Collective appeals require longer consideration.

A written appeal regarding problems with sewerage must be written in business language , accurately indicating all the facts. The address, time of occurrence of the stench, and other data are indicated.

The complaint indicates where the appeal has already been sent and which company has not responded to the information.

Solving the problem yourself

Sometimes a situation arises when it is easier to get the desired result by contacting an alternative specialized company. You will have to pay them out of your own pocket, with the whole entrance or house chipping in, but the repairs will be done quickly and the problem will be solved. Then you should take checks and other documents from the contractor organization confirming the completion of work and payment by the residents of the house. With these papers you can go to court and file an application against the employees of the Criminal Code. It is necessary to take into account that in this case a collective complaint cannot be filed; the owner of each apartment must write a statement on his own behalf.

Complaint to the director of the management company

It is worth remembering that the Criminal Code is the first authority to which an application is made to eliminate problems; the document is written to the director of the organization.

When drawing up a document, you must indicate:

The name of the organization to which the document will be sent, this information is indicated in the upper right corner of the sheet, the full name of its head, information about the citizens submitting the paper - full name, address, telephone;
Next, the problem is indicated, the elimination of which falls under the competence of the management company;
The last point will be the signature of the document and the date of its preparation. Either one tenant or several can sign the paper.

The document is drawn up in two copies, each of them must be registered in the department of the company that is responsible for receiving documents. The text should not contain profanity; it is advisable to use a business style.

ATTENTION! Look at the completed sample complaint to the head of the management company:

How to write a complaint correctly

When drawing up a complaint, the law does not provide for any specific requirement when writing it, but in accordance with the standard requirements for office work, it is necessary to observe some nuances when filing it:

the complaint is drawn up on an A4 sheet;
the upper right corner contains information about where and to whom the paper is specifically sent, as well as information about the sender, indicating the place of residence and telephone number;
further along, below from the red line they state the problem that the applicant encountered and describe the actions that were taken before the filing of the complaint, that is, indicate when and how many times they contacted the Criminal Code to resolve the problem, what they received in response;
express the requirements of the management company;
in order to competently and in accordance with the law justify your requirements, you can indicate in accordance with what these requirements are presented, that is, in accordance with the agreement signed between the management company and the tenant for the provision of a number of services, as well as in connection with the Housing Code of the Russian Federation;
The text must be dated and signed by the tenant who wrote the complaint.

In addition to individual drawing up of paper, the law also provides for the writing of a complaint by several residents.

Please note! In this case the text will be slightly different:

In the upper right corner you must write that the document is from the residents of the owners of the house located at such and such an address;
It is written “Collective complaint”;
It is also necessary to put signatures under the text, only in this case this must be done by each of the residents participating in the preparation of the document, and also indicate the number of their apartment opposite the signature.

The text can be written with your own hand or typed on a computer, since there are no specific requirements here either. The complaint is accompanied by a number of evidence confirming violations on the part of the Criminal Code.

ATTENTION! Look at the completed sample of a collective complaint against the Criminal Code:

Complaint to Rospotrebnadzor

Rosporebnadzor is an organization whose powers are much broader than those of housing estates; a complaint to this organization is drawn up based on Federal Law No. 2300-1 of February 7, 1992 and a number of articles of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.

Attention! Reasons for contacting this organization may include:

Violations committed when drawing up an agreement for the provision of services concluded between the residents of the house and the management company;
The management company refuses to provide home owners with information about the timing, volume and quality of services related to paid housing and communal services;
Rospotrebnadzor can also check the company’s accounting activities;
Checking the correspondence of expenses and income in order to exclude excess payments for certain services.

The powers of this organization are extensive, and one of them is the right to force the responsible organization to reimburse the costs of residents of houses for the poor quality housing and communal services provided.

Important: before submitting to Rospotrebnadzor, citizens must first submit an application for troubleshooting to the Criminal Code, and only in case of refusal or poor quality work can they file a complaint.

The organization may leave the received paper without consideration if:

The document did not provide information about the person filing the complaint;
The response recipient address is missing;
The text is written in illegible handwriting and includes obscene language or insults;
The organization had previously considered a similar complaint, and a response was sent to the complainant.

The time period during which a response to a complaint is given is 1 month.

ATTENTION! Look at the completed sample complaint to Rospotrebnadzor against the Criminal Code:

Leaks in the joints of the bench

Chasing the sockets of cast iron sewers leads to leakage of foul-smelling drains. The lezhnevka is hammered out due to rotting of the heel (sealing of the socket joint - organic fiber impregnated with resin) or due to the displacement of one pipe relative to the other.

Hammered joint of a cast iron bed frame

Elimination

Embossing the joint of a cast iron bench is performed as follows:

Using a hammer and a strong screwdriver, we break the old casing of the socket (the casing is sealed with a cement-sand mixture);
Use a screwdriver to remove the old heel;
We place several turns of the heel between the pipe and the socket and seal them with hammering (this tool can be made from a thin steel tube, flattening its end with a hammer) or with the same wide flat screwdriver;

Advice: the heel is perfectly replaced by a graphite oil seal. It lasts even longer than organic fiber.

Graphite gland for sealing valve stems and gate valves

Cover the socket with a mixture of sand and cement in a 1:1 ratio, diluted with water to the consistency of thick sour cream.