Plumbing in an Apartment

Mailman

Hi,

Please give me advice here.
The resident of an apartment is complaining of a sewage smell in their apartment. No other residents complain of the problem.

To me this means that there is a problem with the plumbing in the apartment and therefore not the Management Comapany's responsibility.
Most likely the U-bends on the plumbing in the apartment aren't doing their job or there is a leak in the piping internal to the apartment.

I'm of the opinion that the only interest the Management company would have in this issue would be if it was causing damage to the structure of the building or affecting other users in which case they could direct the resident to fix the problem at their expense or fix it on the residents behalf and bill them.

I'm director of the management company for the apartment block so I don't want to pay for this because it comes out of all the other resident's pockets when really it is the individual resident's problem and the resident has shown no evidence that the plumbing external to the apartment is to blame.

Rgds,
Mailman.

dingding

Had this problem and it was the filter / water trap not fitted bac correctly after the filter was cleaned.

I can't see how this would be a problem with the mains sewerage.

dubtom

How can the apartment owner show that the problem is external to the apartment mailman,without removing the ceiling below their bathroom and investigating.If sewage is not leaking inside their property, or the ubend is not blocked,which it's probably not because the loo would over flow, then I would guess that the communal sewage pipes are at fault. I assume that the apartment, like most others, have concrete floors and the only way to investigate is from below.If that was the case of a breakage or leak in the sewage pipe, I don't see how you could hold the owner responsible, it might be just unfortunate for them that the breakage is under their bathroom, but not their fault.

Mailman

It's not a multi-storey apartment block.
the apartment is ground floor with another apartment above it where they are not complaining of the problem. Other director lives in apartment beside the Apartment in question and has no problem.
Just this apartment and the one above it share the same drain.
Only U-bends are on sink pipe, bath pipe and the bowl of the toilet is a u-bend.