David Gobaud, who pays $5,850 a month for a New York City apartment, sued his landlord over an odor he says enters through a wall beside the trash compactor room. He says it was present on his June move-in day; the landlord says staff who visited detected no odor.
Since moving in, Gobaud has made repeated repair requests and filed complaints with the city. He believes fumes enter through openings around an electrical outlet; he bought the building's structural plans, used a borescope behind a kitchen cabinet and took heat readings near the wall.
Fetner Properties CEO Hal Fetner said in a July email that no previous resident had complained of the smell. The city housing agency had logged four complaints from other tenants since April 2025 but had issued no violations in Gobaud's unit. Tenant attorney Sam Himmelstein said housing-court cases often depend on documented city violations and that cases like this are harder to process. Gobaud continues paying rent and declined an offer to end his lease, citing the cost and difficulty of moving in New York.
