sewer smell in basement bathroom

orange · Feb 1, 2006, 08:44 PM

I'm moving in a couple of months, but the house I'm renting right now has a really strong sewer smell coming from the shower drain, sink drain, and the drain for the washing machine, all in the basement. It's worse when the washing machine is running, but you can smell it pretty much all the time. All the drains run really slowly, so I plunge pretty often. When I plunge this black crud comes up and the smell is incredibly bad. I've mentioned it to the landlord and asked about getting a plumber, but he says it's harmless, it's just like that because the house is old, and that hiring a plumber would not help. Is he pulling my leg?

He's left a lot of other "harmless" things unfixed in the house, and I'm thinking about reporting him when I move.

orange · Feb 6, 2006, 01:20 PM

Thanks for the suggestion of photos. That's a really good idea that I never thought of! There's lots of places in the house where photos would be very telling.

The plumber and the electrician are from the city, not from a private business. I guess I didn't make that totally clear from my post. We likely wouldn't be able to afford them otherwise.

Thanks again, I will keep you guys informed!

orange · Feb 20, 2006, 07:42 AM

I just wanted to update you guys on everything... my former landlord is getting CHARGED (criminally)! Not solely because of our complaint, but I guess he had some other buildings with similar problems and other tenants also complained. Additionally, one of his buildings had a serious fire in it last week, and a child was injured. So I'm really glad we got out of there!!

We also found a new house, which we are buying. We had it inspected, and it is up to standards and has everything we were looking for. After our fiasco with the old kitchen, we are splurging and buying all new appliances as well. I'm kind of paranoid about fridges and stoves now. We take possession of the house March 15.

Thanks everyone for your help! If you're interested, I'll come back later and tell you whether or not my ex-landlord went to jail!!

PalmMP3 · Feb 20, 2006, 11:53 AM

Thanks for the update! Please continue to keep us informed of any new developments.

Hatzlacha Rabbah with your new house, and enjoy it!

PalmMP3 · Jan 13, 2008, 01:17 AM

Hey Chava,

I know this is a REALLY old thread, but you never got back to us: what happened to your ex-landlord in the end? Did he end up going to jail, or what?

Regards,
Moishe



At Ask Me Help Desk you can ask questions in any topic and have them answered for free by our experts. To ask questions or participate in answering them you must register for a free account. By registering you will be able to: Get free answers from experts in any of our 300+ topics. Accept money for answers that you provide. Communicate privately with other members (PM). See fewer ads. Sign Up!