Residents demand action after body left undiscovered in flat for weeks leading to stench

The body, which was found on July 12 the flat in Cradley Heath, had been there for several weeks.

And the home was not cleaned for 12 days afterwards, forcing neighbouring tenants to put up with an unbearable stench.

The man who died was the second tenant this year to have been left undiscovered for weeks in the same row of flats on New Pool Road.

The number of bodies left undiscovered in properties for several weeks has increased in recent years.

Official statistics reveal 1,000 were found in the UK in 2021 compared to 59 in 1961, with men more likely to being undiscovered than women.

However, figures for 'lonely deaths', when the person was found at least a week after they died, showed 8,000 cases in 2022.

The sad phenomenon has worried residents in Sandwell where a downstairs neighbour of a man who died experienced a fowl stench from upstairs and maggots falling from her ceiling.

New Pool Road resident Simon Ball has told how he repeatedly called Sandwell Council with his fears about a dead body lying in the flats and then to demand a deep clean.

He said: "The smell is so bad, and when the hot weather comes it is even worse. I've phoned up so many times and get ignored. What is sad is that it keeps on happening, with two found dead after laying there for months this year, and three in the last five years.

"You worry if you don't see someone now. But what is annoying is I know questions were raised months before the latest man died as his electric meter was going unpaid. We lost track of how many complaints we made. When a housing officer was told the tenant might be dead, his response to tell us to smell through the letter box to see if it smelt, only then was something was done."