Smell from next door - New build

mml14119064

Hi all,
I'm not entirely sure where to post this, but thought this might be the most appropriate. I have just moved into a new build property (terraced/townhouse) and i'm having a strange problem. Every so often (3-4 times per week) we can smell the next door neighbors cooking. They are Indian and therefore their cooking is very pungent. I am obviously not going to ask them to stop cooking, however I do want to minimise it coming into our home. I have identified that the smell is coming from gaps in the house for example, in the bathroom where the water shut off is and between the skirting board and the carpets in multiple upstairs room. It is also coming through the inevitable shrinking cracks on the stairs, however this is easily fixed.

I'm sure that i can fill the smaller gaps around the carpet with caulk, and have done so in some rooms which has worked to reduce  the smell but i have a more serious worry.
If the smell is getting through, I'm assuming that if they had a fire, the smoke would also come through.  This would then fall on the developer to fix (built in 2019, NHBC warranty).

We have an EPC rating that says that the air tightness is "Air permeability 8.0 m³/h.m²" but this was carried out almost a year before we moved in. However, I honestly can;t see how that is any longer. I have found huge gaps (0.5cm) between the carpet and the wall which lead directly to the cavity, which I caulked. The house has had several issues already - doors not closing, toilet crooked, plaster peeling etc and I worry that the the level of care wasn't there. Is it worth paying for an inspection to check these things?

Any advice or solution would be much appreciated. 

Le_Kirk

Complain to the house builder if it is not up to specification.  Did it come with any sort of NHBC guarantee?

mml14119064

Hi,
So apparently it did but we have yet to receive it (solicitor has confirmed for mortgage that they saw it). I have complained to them this afternoon so we shall see what they say.

Slinky

A 0.5cm gap between the bottom of the skirting and the floor is common - it's so your carpet can be tucked under the skirting to get a tidy edge.

mml14119064

The gaps aren’t everywhere though. It’s only on certain walls we’re the caulk has dried and fallen through. Some of the walls are completely fine, with no gaps. If they are normal, why would the smell is coming through? Do you reckon it’s the natural ventilation system build into the houses? We haven’t been able to ask the neighbours on the other side if they have the same problem due to lockdown etc 

ComicGeek

It's unlikely to be travelling through the party wall. More likely that the cooking smells are travelling from their external grille back into your house through trickle vents, open windows and extract grilles - with terraced houses this is particularly the case, particularly when wind blows in certain directions and certain cooking smells travel long distances.

When we cook, cooking smells travel 3m from the kitchen extract grille back to the downstairs wc grille, and then through bad joints in the ductwork and through the down lights to make the dining room smell.