What did we talk about? Below is the Edited Transcript

This smell is horrendous.

Hey everyone! Good afternoon! A story today about smells and what to do about it. If there’s anything that can be done about it.

I wanted to do a quick subscriber update I’m up to 12 subscribers. I know the first five were my family so we’re up to 12. Would love to be up at at 20 maybe by the end of the week. Hopefully, with your help we can do that.

Our show is designed to be around you and the community and that is the, you know neighbors, HOAs bad real estate agenting. All those sorts of things. So if you do have a story you can certainly email me at media@deerwoodrealtystl.com or leave us a voicemail 314-274-3964. If it’s a good story I might play it on the air and we’ll go from there. So the context today is basically we have all these laws. They’re all in the books. And we have all these rules. And then, at the same time something always seems to slip through the cracks. And, I don’t know if it’s because we’re just such complex beings or what it is. But, these stories aren’t ever going to end.

The idea that, I mean, we should be able to live in harmony with our neighbors.

But what?

Let’s put it this way. If you have a friend and you have a disagreement. If you’re good friends and you know, the slight wasn’t too terrible you’re going to go on and continue to be friends. Eith a neighbor it’s gotten to the point where you almost can’t talk to your neighbor without you know, concern that for retaliation. Or or just outright craziness. And so there’s no chance to kind of right a wrong it seems.

So, Anyway I just want to get into the story real quick here the headline is.

Rotting food odor from house raising concerns from neighbors.”

So this is in Albuquerque, New Mexico and basically there’s a house. And the house next door to it has rotting food that just continues to grow and grow and there’s not a lot being done. And so in the article it says, “last year they said their next-door neighbors started leaving out boxes of food in the backyard attracting flies and rodents and creating an overwhelming stench.”

So this is last year and this family says they want to leave their swamp cooler on but they can’t leave it on for long because the smell from the neighbor’s house will then seep into their house.

And so, yo have this situation where this person is just bringing in tons of food and it’s not being taken care of properly. So what I thought was interesting it says the city’s code enforcement has visited the house and said they were not able …. what they were able to see did not violate code because any item items that were in question were underneath the carport. From a technical standpoint under the code that doesn’t constitute outdoor storage.

And then, it goes on to say a carport is essentially a building as it’s defined. And because of that there was not an observable code violation. So that’s the article. I’ll leave a link to it in the description below and you can read it for yourself and decide what you think about it.

I have some ideas I have some thoughts I have some questions.

So first off what in the world?

What’s the right thing? Who’s in the wrong and who’s in the right here today?

Under what circumstance is it okay to leave a bunch of food rotting under your carport? So bad … that there’s flies and it’s disgusting? Under what condition is that okay?

And then the second question I have is, What can be done? They’ve already decided it’s not a code violation. I’m sure the neighbors ask. Like, “hey can you can you knock this off?” And then, now they’ve gone to the press to try and motivate change that way. In the court of public opinion this seems like a slam dunk, doesn’t it? It seems like you as a good neighbor wouldn’t leave a bunch of food outside that’s rotting and nasty.

So then we get on to this idea of not technically violating code. So I think everyone thinks that code is put there, building codes are put there, enforcement codes are put there, to make everyone else’s life easier well what happens when it doesn’t?

Should you adjust the code? So should we write a new amendment to the code that says you can’t leave rotting food outside in your carport that stinks out the neighbors? I mean, are we going to have to legislate everything? And, I hope not but this is where there’s always going to be friction. There’s going to be some people that say we have too many laws already and there’s other people that says we don’t have enough laws. We don’t have enough code enforcement. Look at what this person is doing. And, I don’t know the answer. What was interesting is in the article, one of the quotes was, “any items that were in question were underneath the carport. From a technical standpoint under the code that doesn’t constitute outdoor storage.

So even the code is odd: A carport is considered indoor storage.

Just doesn’t make a lot of sense.

And then, another quote said the city can’t inspect the property unless they get permission from the owner or have a court order. So I’m just trying to get this through my head. If you’re the person with the stinky food in the carport are you going to let the city come in and inspect your property? And what are they…. If they’re coming inside what are they looking for anyway? Health violations? Who’s going to knowingly agree to that? And then the second part is on a court order. Can you get, again I’m not a lawyer, Can you get a court order for a terrible smell that is coming from your neighbor’s house? So it’s fascinating to me. What can you do?

And it’s so bad that the family has a swamp cooler and they can’t even leave it on because the smells from the neighbor’s house will then seep into their house. And so a couple of things. We’ve gotten into this now.

So we should make designations for neighborly things to do and then not being neighborly. And if we go with neighborly this this is not a neighborly thing to do. The neighborly thing to do would be to keep your area clean. But, you shouldn’t have to be told that. If you own a house, and it shouldn’t have to be legislated, to be a good neighbor is important to a community. And, this is falling way short.

Just to get into one of the things I’ve learned as a real estate broker is during the maybe early 2000s there was a political party that said home ownership is an all-time high. So I guess this was actually 2006-2007 and they were running around saying “look at all the home ownership we have!” “Look at all this wonderful home ownership!” And it occurred to me then, and it’s it’s always struck me: There are some people that can’t own a home. And and I mean that.

I’ve been in so many houses. I mean, it’s just disgusting. Why do we think home ownership solves that problem? If people are disgusting people in the first place then home ownership isn’t going to fix that. So, I’ve always been a little bit worried about the idea that you know because we have high rates of home ownership things are better. Some of these people, it’s not going to be better. And so that’s one thing I wanted to mention.

And then I wanted to talk about hoarding for a second. And mental illness. Many of the things we’re running into or we’re seeing is as a result of a non diagnosed mental illness. So are these people hoarders? And we’ve come to accept you know hoarding is an illness. And so under that, Is there a way to you know, work with these people and get this solved? I don’t think anyone thinks living in a hoarding situation is great. I know that if you’re a real estate investor and you happen to come upon a hoarder it’s like a gold mine because you know that the house is destroyed and you know that nobody else is going to want to buy it unless it’s a flipper. So in that case you’re you’re doing great. But there’s a real sad part to this. The people that are the hoarders are having issues and and we should try to help as a community.

And so that’s just what I wanted to go over today. It’s not a long article but it’s there’s a theme here. If somebody’s clearly having issues and there’s the response.

It was, you know, to call the press and see if we could get that shining a light on the situation if that could solve it and the court of public opinion is powerful.

And I’m sure that these these other neighbors are just trying their best to to live in a situation that’s just not good.

So what do you think?

What should be done?

And what would work for everybody?

You know, we’ve got somebody that’s got terrible food hygiene. And then we’ve got some some neighbors that are clearly being affected by another neighbor. I mean, Can you imagine coming home from work and having to deal with this every day? Can’t open your windows? And it’s just not right. I mean just fundamentally not right. So that’s what I have today. Think about it. Give me a call. Leave me a voicemail. Send me an email. Tell me about your neighbors that are stinky and tell me what the situation is and and how you solved it.

That’s all I have. I’ll catch you on the next one.

Source Link: https://www.krqe.com/news/weird/rotting-food-odor-from-house-raising-concerns-from-neighbors/