WELLSTON, Mo. – Constance Houston says she has been a loyal renter at a home in Wellston for more than a decade. But she says after the last two years, she might have to move. 

“Everyone is sniffing and everything from the smell, the fumes, and everything,” she said. 

She attributes that strong smell to a sewage problem. Now, she is worried for her health, as well as her grandchildren’s who live with her. 

“A lot of times, I sit outside with me being sickly and everything. It’s hard at nighttime for me to sleep,” Houston said. 

She said she has complained to her landlord, Vatterott Properties, for more than two years about the issue. In the basement, Houston showed FOX 2 a pipe that looks bent with a clamp that’s been placed around it. She says that is where the sewage issues are coming from.

Vatterott did send someone out to look at it again recently, though. 

“They tell us the same thing, that it has to be dug up and then they do a little bandage job on it, but the smell is still within the household,” Houston said. 

She was told Vatterott needs to put the project out to bid, but she is sick of waiting.

Legally, she does not have many options, and that depends on if the problem is considered an emergency. Emergency repairs do include anything that poses a serious threat to health. 

“When we talk about emergency repairs, flooding, the power goes out, things that make the place immediately non-livable, and they’re not answering in a timely manner, that’s when your options are to either move or remedy the issue yourself,” Daniel Buran, program director at Legal Services of Eastern Missouri, said. 

If a renter does pay to fix a problem on their own, then they could end up in a legal batter trying to get reimbursed for those repairs, according to Buran.

FOX 2 spoke to a Vatterott Properties official off-camera who said she was unaware of the problem. She said Vatterott would not discuss any individual tenant with us, but she took down Houston’s name and address and said she would look into the problem.

We will follow up to see when the work gets done.