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Chelmsford, along with the rest of England, is now in lockdown until further notice. You can find out what this means and get other useful information on our coronavirus updates page.

Report an odour problem

We investigate odour from:

boiler fumes
bonfire or chimney smoke
build-ups of waste (such as dog waste or food items)
animals
filthy premises
industrial, trade or business premises

We do not investigate odour from domestic cooking.

Report now

You can report an odour problem to us if a smell is having a significant impact on you and your family.

Before you report an odour problem to us, you should try to speak to the person responsible for the odour.

You can find out about resolving neighbour disputes on GOV.UK.

If you can’t solve the problem by speaking to the person responsible, you can report it to us.

To report an odour problem, you will need to tell us:

your name, address and contact details
what the odour is
where you think the odour is coming from
how long the odour lasts for
how often the odour occurs
the time the odour usually happens
how the odour is affecting you and your family

Once we receive your complaint, we will:

acknowledge your complaint within three working days
investigate your complaint and decide if the odour is causing a statutory nuisance
inform you of our decision. As all complaints have their own complexities, we will keep you up to date with our investigations as they progress.

We will keep your details confidential, but in some cases, it may be obvious who has made the complaint.

We will send a letter to you and to the person responsible for the odour.

The letter to the person responsible for the odour will inform them of the alleged nuisance, and ask them to stop.

The letter to you will include an odour log.

If the odour continues after we have written to the person responsible, you will need to keep the log for 14 days.

The log includes:

what the odour is
the date of the odour
the time the odour started
the time the odour ended
where in your property the odour affects you

We will use the information on your log to:

help us to determine that the odour is a statutory nuisance
help us identify the best time to visit to witness the odour

If the odour is a statutory nuisance, we will serve an abatement notice. The notice means that the person responsible for the odour has to stop.

If the person responsible for the odour does not stop, we will begin legal proceedings. We will notify you if we take legal proceedings, as we may have to reveal your identity.

You can find more information about odour nuisance on GOV.UK.