NYC man says his $5,850 luxury apartment smells 'like the subway' — and he's suing. Management says he just wants to get out of rent

The problem? His landlord and the building owner claim they don’t smell anything and it’s led to a legal standoff where neither side is budging.

The dispute

Gobaud’s complaints about the smell date back to move-in day in June when he says he first noticed the weird odor in the apartment. According to court documents, he filed a repair request through the building’s tenant portal the next day. That was just the first of 10 other requests he ended up submitting.

He then started making complaints to the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development and sent emails to the property manager and the building owner, Fetner Properties.

In its court response Fetner Properties said it responded to Gobaud’s complaints, investigating, repairing and cleaning parts of the unit, including patching holes in the kitchen, replacing the fridge and sealing gaps in and around plumbing in the bathroom.

“It appears,” they wrote, that Gobaud “is trying to use this court to posture for a rent abatement.”

Gobaud has denied the accusation he is using the scent to get out of rent payments and his landlord says he has continued to pay his rent each month.

The building

The unit is located on the 46th floor next to a trash compactor room and garbage chute. Gobaud believes the smell is coming through an electrical outlet opening in the wall behind the kitchen cabinets.

He told the Gothamist he’s spent hundreds of dollars buying structural plans from the Department of Buildings and on a borescope camera that fed behind his cabinets into the wall. The building plans appear to show a riser shaft between his unit and the garbage room and he showed a Gothamist reporter how he believes the air circulates from behind the wall and out of the electrical outlet opening.

The company and its attorney deny that there is a gap, arguing that the trash chute is encased in concrete to stop the smell.

And it appears Gobaud is alone in his battle. According to the Gothamist, just four other tenants have filed complaints about the building since April 2025 and it has four open violations, none of which relate to peculiar odors.

Still Gobaud isn’t giving up. He plans to go door-to-door along the line of apartments next to the trash chute to see if others are experiencing the same problem.

What rights do tenants have?

Despite the ongoing dispute — and alleged odor — Gobaud says he has no plans to move out. He likes the apartment, its location and its view. He even turned down an offer to break his lease.