My compost bin smells fine to me, but my neighbor says it ruins her patio. How do we figure out what is fair?

My neighbor knocked on Sunday and asked whether I could move my compost bin because she can smell it while sitting on her patio.

I was genuinely surprised. The bin sits near the back corner of our yard, about fifteen feet from the fence. When I open it, I notice an earthy smell and sometimes something sharper for a few seconds. From our patio, I smell nothing.

She said the odor comes in waves, especially in the evening, and that she has stopped eating outside. She was calm but clearly frustrated. I told her I would check it and then made the mistake of saying, “It really doesn’t smell that bad.” Her face changed immediately. She replied, “Not from where you sit.”

She was right about that. I was defending my intention instead of investigating her experience.

After she left, I stood beside her fence line at several times of day. Once, when the breeze shifted, I caught a sour smell that was stronger than what reaches our patio. I opened the bin and found a dense wet layer beneath recent kitchen scraps. I turned it and added dry material. The smell improved near the bin, but I cannot tell what happens next door.

Moving it is possible, though every location has a tradeoff. Closer to our house would be less convenient and might attract my own objections. The opposite corner is near another neighbor. Stopping composting entirely feels excessive before we know whether basic maintenance fixes the problem.

I want to go back with a better conversation. My idea is to acknowledge that I dismissed her report, tell her what I changed and ask her to text me the next two times she notices the smell. If it continues, I will move the bin farther from our shared fence.

My spouse worries that inviting reports will turn us into subjects of ongoing odor monitoring. I think a short test period is the only way to learn whether the fix worked. We cannot evaluate the air from her chair.

How would you handle this without debating whose nose is correct? Is a two-week feedback window reasonable, or should I simply move the bin now because she is the one receiving the impact?