Desperately Smelly Neighbour; What To Do?

[Tuckins1]

Call adult protective services? It seems that the mother is so old that perhaps she can't really take care of herself and her son anymore, so they probably need someone to step in and help care for them.

 

[peachster]

I very rarely post here but wanted to given the topic. When we lived in one coop in the city, there was a flood that started to come through our ceiling. It turned out that the person living above us had a major plumbing issue. But the building manager and owner and board all got involved because the person was a hoarder. Nobody knew as he lived alone and tried to avoid people. His entire apartment was covered with stacks of newspaper. I mean, the sofa was about 5 feet up perched on piles, the bookcase, coffee table etc. There was a very narrow alley just six inches wide which he used to get to each room, and his bed was up on piles too. The fire department was terribly concerned as all that newspaper was a major fire hazard. It was cleaned up and the fellow ended up in a nursing home and died within a year. But it was sad, and I can't help but think that if he had been identified earlier to social services, they might have found a solution which would have kept him in his home safely and allowed him to be happier. The institutional setting led to his decline.

Getting the fire department and social services involved with your smelly neighbor may really help him and his mom. I would never have stepped up to get involved before the situation described above, but now I think I would step in before something worse happens. Abd maybe I would try to talk to them as well, not about smell per se but about how they are doing, whether they could use help, etc.

 

[Enerchi]

I'm glad you are going to get the fire department involved - fire risk is very real and its not just the individual unit that is compromised if there is a hoarder, it puts ALL tenants at risk due to the excess fire load and risk of a faster 'flash over' if there is over 50% volume in the unit.

Different places work differently, and as you know, I'm in Canada (Ontario) so not sure how the Boston FD works, but if they are found to not be compliant, they can be issued an order to clean up/dispose of excess volume. There ARE companies that will do this (they should be provided with a list of services they can hire for a fee and make their own decision as to who to hire) but if you are curious, just look in the yellow pages or google "restoration" services. Usually those are the companies that we use for seriously deteriorated environments.

The tenant/condo owner is first given a notice, with a fixed date when a return inspection will be done and at that time, it is expected they have complied with the notice of violation. Some places give a second warning and then the city service will hire a company to dispose/reduce volume and bill it back to the tenant/condo owner. It can also be added to their tax bill so they pay it off over time, if they can not afford to pay directly.

My guess is, once the BFD is involved, they will also notify the appropriate adult protective services to become involved and then it should just flow into help being found for the mom and son. IMO, you are doing a great service to many by starting with an enforcement route who can link to other government agencies.

Good luck Smith!