David’s neighbour died alone. He now knows what comes next

David Kern felt a pang of alarm when he arrived home and noticed a swarm of flies on his neighbour’s door two weeks ago.

“I heard the buzzing sound and walked over to investigate,” he says. “I knocked on the door and rang the bell … there was a very strong smell.”

Kern had had little interaction with his downstairs neighbour since moving into the complex in Brisbane’s northern suburbs seven months ago, but he immediately became concerned.

“I quickly Googled what to do when you think something has happened to a neighbour that you haven’t really spoken to, and it said to call Policelink and ask them to do a welfare check. So that’s what I did.”

Police arrived that afternoon and confirmed Kern’s neighbour had died. They later told residents the man had no next of kin and the death was not suspicious, so the situation was no longer a police matter.

After the visit from police, the unit was left unattended, with the odour of death persisting around the complex.

Worried about health and contamination risks, owners reached out to the body corporate for assistance, and were told it was an issue for the next of kin.

In Queensland, the body corporate is not responsible for managing a deceased person’s estate or remains. But in the case of a person passing away with no next of kin, if decomposition causes a health hazard or unbearable odour, it may act to carry out the owner’s obligation – which can include engaging professional biohazard cleaning services. Reasonable costs can be recovered from the estate.

Biohazard cleaner Benjamin Mustonen says odour is only part of the problem.

In cases such as these, where a person hasn’t been discovered for several weeks, decomposition creates significant pathogen risks that can seep into the surrounding environments.

“Decomposition releases large amounts of bodily fluids, and that can contain blood-borne pathogens such as hepatitis and HIV,” he explains.

“There’s also bacterial pathogens such as E. coli and clostridium which can remain on surfaces for weeks after and remain infectious, [and then the risk of] insect activity.”

Mustonen says excretions can soak into anything that’s porous, such as carpet, underlay, subfloor, timbers and concrete, often turning a clean-up into “more of a restoration job”.

“In a situation where you have multiple dwellings that are side-by-side, bodily fluids can go under walls as well.

“The general rule is anything that’s porous, that’s non-structural, you have to remove it.”

Mustonen is an ex-health worker who started his professional biohazard cleaning business a few years ago. He offers a range of services, including crime scenes, forensics, hoarders’ homes and unattended deaths.

Biohazard and trauma cleaners, he explains, receive specialised training and use advanced equipment and products to identify contaminated surfaces, eliminate pathogens and restore areas to a safe condition.

While the job requires a certain level of steeliness, Mustonen says decontaminating an environment and returning it to a pristine state can be “quite cathartic”.

“Police and paramedics, for example, they come in right when things are at the worst possible situation,” he says. “I get to clean up a scene and leave it so that no one knows what has happened there.”

The body corporate at Kern’s complex eventually engaged a biohazard cleaning service, nearly a month after his neighbour’s death.

For Kern, it was a difficult few weeks as he and his partner avoided time on their balcony because of the smell.

“As soon as you smell [the odour from downstairs], you associate it with death, and that creates a kind of spiral,” he said.

As life returns to normal at the complex, the 24-year-old reflects on how the situation could have turned out differently if he’d checked in earlier.

“It’s a good reminder to check in on your neighbours and the community you’re in.”

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