Who is responsible for the exhaust ventilation system in a condo?

[Mike West]

The exhaust ventilation systems that runs from  the toilet ceiling. There is a bad smell coming from the top of mine. It is my understand that anything beyond the walls and ceilings are the responsibility of condo management to fix and pay for, is this correct? thank you 

[KittenKong]

Normally any such ventilation would be in a false ceiling which would be your responsibility. It does rather depend on how your condo is built though. Photos?

[Mike West]

2 minutes ago, KittenKong said:

Normally any such ventilation would be in a false ceiling which would be your responsibility. It does rather depend on how your condo is built though. Photos?

yes it is in the false ceiling, though it also would depend where the exact origin of the smell is coming from right? 

[trogers]

The volume of space from the soffit of the concrete floor above, to the surface of the concrete floor you stand on, belongs to you, with the exception of drainage pipes of the unit above.

 

Check to see if the smell comes from leaking drainage pipes above your false ceiling. If yes, the owner of the unit above has to repair the leak, and make good your ceiling.

 

Look out for a dead mouse above the false ceiling if there is no leak.

[KittenKong]

7 hours ago, Mike West said:

yes it is in the false ceiling, though it also would depend where the exact origin of the smell is coming from right? 

 

Open the ceiling and look. The odds are that the smell is coming from the unit above you, in which case they would be responsible. Without investigation it's impossible to know for sure.

[DGS1244]

The comment about a 'mouse' is so true. Some years ago I had a very nasty smell coming from ceiling, eventually traced to a dead rat in the void. Took some time to get rid of smell.

[tigermoth]

19 hours ago, trogers said:

The volume of space from the soffit of the concrete floor above, to the surface of the concrete floor you stand on, belongs to you, with the exception of drainage pipes of the unit above.

 

Check to see if the smell comes from leaking drainage pipes above your false ceiling. If yes, the owner of the unit above has to repair the leak, and make good your ceiling.

 

Look out for a dead mouse above the false ceiling if there is no leak.

 

19 hours ago, trogers said:

The volume of space from the soffit of the concrete floor above, to the surface of the concrete floor you stand on, belongs to you, with the exception of drainage pipes of the unit above.

 

Check to see if the smell comes from leaking drainage pipes above your false ceiling. If yes, the owner of the unit above has to repair the leak, and make good your ceiling.

 

Look out for a dead mouse above the false ceiling if there is no leak.

Most of these comments about the owner's responsibility are incorrect. The exhaust air system and the drainage is totally the responsibility of the owner. If installed correctly in the first place it should never cause problems. If the smell is caused through leaking pipes from above, the owner's responsibility. It is possible something has died in the ceiling. It is still the owner's responsibility to investigate. The resident of the condo is not assumed to be a plumber. Of course if you have interfered with or modified any of the exhaust or drainage then the onus falls on you.

[Jeffkp]

Have you tried asking your condo management team to take a look? Mine is very helpful. If it's something simple they correct it. If need outside person, they help me find and then supervise the work.

 

[trogers]

1 hour ago, tigermoth said:

 

Most of these comments about the owner's responsibility are incorrect. The exhaust air system and the drainage is totally the responsibility of the owner. If installed correctly in the first place it should never cause problems. If the smell is caused through leaking pipes from above, the owner's responsibility. It is possible something has died in the ceiling. It is still the owner's responsibility to investigate. The resident of the condo is not assumed to be a plumber. Of course if you have interfered with or modified any of the exhaust or drainage then the onus falls on you.

Do you think the OP is a tenant, and not the owner of this condo unit?

[Kabula]

You might want to look in there as many find new construction trash, used condoms, used sanitary napkins, beer, soda cans, lost tools; perhaps even post accident amputations of  construction worker's fingers, hands and dead rats!

 

The sooner the better.  If they find a body or parts,  you will be a person of interest.

[chilli42]

Had a similar issue when I lived in the USA.  It was my issue to sort out, unless as another poster mentioned, the source of the problem was found to be elsewhere in the building

[Mike West]

14 hours ago, KittenKong said:

 

Open the ceiling and look. The odds are that the smell is coming from the unit above you, in which case they would be responsible. Without investigation it's impossible to know for sure.

ok thank you, we have a guy coming today, I opened it and couldn't really see much, just the exhaust running up. thanks again 

[Mike West]

1 hour ago, Jeffkp said:

Have you tried asking your condo management team to take a look? Mine is very helpful. If it's something simple they correct it. If need outside person, they help me find and then supervise the work.

 

yeah 3 times, they are useless. 

[DGS1244]

1 hour ago, tigermoth said:

 

Most of these comments about the owner's responsibility are incorrect. The exhaust air system and the drainage is totally the responsibility of the owner. If installed correctly in the first place it should never cause problems. If the smell is caused through leaking pipes from above, the owner's responsibility. It is possible something has died in the ceiling. It is still the owner's responsibility to investigate. The resident of the condo is not assumed to be a plumber. Of course if you have interfered with or modified any of the exhaust or drainage then the onus falls on you.

May not have an 'owner' as such, maybe a Juristic Person and therefor all the occupiers have equal responsibility. Suggest builder first to investigate and then decide on action.

[KittenKong]

7 minutes ago, Mike West said:

ok thank you, we have a guy coming today, I opened it and couldn't really see much, just the exhaust running up. thanks again 

 

It's tricky. Smells can be even harder to trace than small leaks, especially as sometimes you only get the smell when a distant toilet is flushed causing extra airflow/backflow in a nearby blocked soil vent pipe. Good luck with it.

 

 

[lungnorm]

Most likely a dead rat sure a mouse will stink but not very strong. Could be the neighbors cooking dried fish?

[thailand49]

The ceiling exhaust fan can be removed easily. As noted by another poster, you Condo, should have a general maintenance guy that they use to service the Condo and units for owners. 

Particular smells are common here in Thailand,  Yes, could be a dead mouse or rat laying above, hard to explain here but the smell is distinctive so is mold and mildew, and I surmise, if you are talking about your toilet ceiling fan, guess what most likely the unit above your unit is also their toilet. A guess, is the drainage for their toilet is crack or loose. They don't use metal flange, or a Wax ring here as far as I know, PVC blue pipe, off line a bit or crack and you got a problem.

[trogers]

5 hours ago, lungnorm said:

Most likely a dead rat sure a mouse will stink but not very strong. Could be the neighbors cooking dried fish?

Must be all that street food...

[trogers]

3 hours ago, thailand49 said:

The ceiling exhaust fan can be removed easily. As noted by another poster, you Condo, should have a general maintenance guy that they use to service the Condo and units for owners. 

Particular smells are common here in Thailand,  Yes, could be a dead mouse or rat laying above, hard to explain here but the smell is distinctive so is mold and mildew, and I surmise, if you are talking about your toilet ceiling fan, guess what most likely the unit above your unit is also their toilet. A guess, is the drainage for their toilet is crack or loose. They don't use metal flange, or a Wax ring here as far as I know, PVC blue pipe, off line a bit or crack and you got a problem.

I had both experiences: leaks from unit above and my unit leaking to the one below.

 

In both cases, my contractor had to cut a 45cm square hole, climb through it and shine a light to locate the source of the problem.

[natway09]

Very few condos would have mechanical ventilation for bathroom exhausts, just flued into the roof space

(same goes for rangehood) so get the maintenance crew to have a look. Maybe coming from the main duct

which may be some distance from the actual exhaust.

Does the smell decrease if you leave fan on ? If so there is a clue to the source

 

 

 

 

[tigermoth]

On ‎18‎/‎05‎/‎2017 at 11:08 AM, trogers said:

Do you think the OP is a tenant, and not the owner of this condo unit?

Wether he is the owner or not the management of the condo development should handle this. It's partially the reason you pay annual management fee.

[trogers]

25 minutes ago, tigermoth said:

Wether he is the owner or not the management of the condo development should handle this. It's partially the reason you pay annual management fee.

Sorry. The Juristic is only there to maintain the common areas, but any owner can transfer the title deed to the Juristic and make the unit a common area.

 

If not, two in-house maintenance techs will not have the time to look after the common areas when individual owners of a couple hundred units call on them to attend to issues.

[KittenKong]

1 hour ago, tigermoth said:

Wether he is the owner or not the management of the condo development should handle this. It's partially the reason you pay annual management fee.

 

Part of the service that good management should offer is indeed liaising between co-owners and organising repair work if needed. But individual managements may not be any good at it. In small buildings management may not even consider it to be part of their job and may leave it to the committee.

 

In my experience if management does get involved with this the the cost will go up to cover the kickbacks and commissions.