horrible neighbor odor in Mitchell Lama Coop -- please help

[nycscott]

Wondering if anybody has an ideas or legal connections...

Live in a Mitchell Lama Co-op in the East Village and my neighbor is an old man who unfortunately cannot keep himself or his apartment clean. He has not been home in a month and his apartment is full of rotting food -- the smell is seeping through the walls into my apartment and the hallway and making it uninhabitable.

I contacted the building's management office and they say there is nothing they can do as they cannot legally enter the apartment to remedy the situation.

If anybody has any ideas as to how to force action or remedy this, please let me know.

Thanks,

[Emeraldstar]

Hi All
Did you contact in writing? If not, I suggest you do a brief letter sent RRR.
Sometimes paper is needed by management to justify notice to family or an emergency contact to cover themselves. Wait and see if it helps, if not I would call 311.

[nycscott]

I called 311 and they sent over EMS, who broke into the apartment looking for him -- they thought the smell was a body. He was not in there and the building padlocked the door shut without dealing with the source of the odor. So I'm not sure what to do next.

[TenantNet]

Call the Health Dept. Rotting food (if that's what it is) can attract vermin.

[Emeraldstar]

Hi All
I agree with TN. You can be assured that since EMS was there, now the manaagement knows what the odors are. They are responsiable to keep the environment habitable. They now have justification to( at the very least,) contact family or emergency contact.
I'm guessing on this but maybe the tenant is in a hosp/rehab-nursing home and that is a sticky issue since one cannot be removed from their apt,(and should not be,) unless it is determined they are unable to care for themselves even with the benefit of home care. That is an MD's & social workers call and it takes quite some time since all supports have to be exhausted first. Then again they may return home? Give it some time after calling DOH since they will go back & forth with mgmt. what's going to be done to allow access for cleaning. I know this is all easy for me to say, I've seen that before and patience is about the best advice I can extend once you call DOH.