There is a smell in the terraced apartment, which has caused a huge dispute in Helsinki. The city threatens the housing company with a fine because of the smell.
Terraced house a mysterious smell has been floating in the apartment for a couple of years in Helsinki's Oulunkylä. The housing company has not been able to find out the source of the smell. Now the city of Helsinki is getting involved and is threatening to fine the building company if it does not take steps to combat the smell.
For two years, the owners of the apartment have been trying to get help from the housing association to remove the smell. The building company has carried out investigations, but has given up because the source of the smell has not been found.
The strange smell will be discussed in the environment and permit division of the Helsinki City Environment Board on Thursday.
To the apartment four inspections have been carried out by the city in 1.5 years.
Each time, a microbial odor was detected. The smell was noticed, among other things, in the kitchen and in the living room, both near the radiator. In addition, the smell was also clearly felt in the curtain box, where the previous resident had made a hole.
The housing company's partners also agree that the appellant's apartment has a “circumstance that causes harm to living health”.
Housing company in the report commissioned, it was stated that at no point has the smell of mold or an earthen cellar been detected in the apartment – even by sniffing the structures.
According to the building company, it is not possible to verify the smell based on just a sensory sniff, but an air sample should have been taken from the apartment.
In its response, the building company also questions whether the health hazard caused by the possible smell is real or just a possible consequence.
Both the housing company and the residents of the apartment have done some sealing work inside and outside the apartment, but the smell has only changed places.
In the apartment nor have any signs of moisture damage or rot damage been found.
In the moisture measurement performed on the smelly wall, the wall was found to be completely dry both on the surface and in the structures. No microbial growth has been found on the building's interior or exterior surfaces.
The apartment is part of a row house from the 1980s, with gravity ventilation and slit valves in the windows.
Now The city of Helsinki intends to oblige the housing association to resolve the situation by referring to the Health Protection Act.
A microbial odor can be caused, for example, by mold growing on the outer wall of the building, the city points out.
The city proposes that the housing association be obliged to find out the source of the smell with an external expert and to remove it.
The investigation must be completed by the end of February, if the housing company wants to avoid a threatened fine of 6,000 euros.
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