The Wellington City Council flat in which a man lay dead for up to a month is the same unit where another body decomposed in 2009.

It was a "putrid" smell similar to rotting fish that alerted neighbours in late January that the body of Dean Stewart, 63, lay dead behind the door of flat 45 of the Granville Flats on Adelaide Rd in the southern suburb of Berhampore.

It was the same one-bedroom flat that Wiremu Whakaue, 68, died in 2009. His decomposing body was discovered eight months later, in March 2010. Two years after Whakaue's death, Stewart – unaware he was about to suffer the same fate – said he was not surprised Whakaue's death had gone unnoticed. "Some people have more family than they know what to do with, others have no-one," he said. Following his death, and another similar incident in other Wellington City Council flats, the council sought to engage more with its older residents to keep an eye on them.

SAD: Dean Stewart in the apartment where he was found dead. The flat in which another tenant lay dead for eight months before being found.

FROM THE ARCHIVES:

* Man found dead in Wellington flat for up to a year

* Pensioner's body found in fire alarm check

STUFF COUNCIL HOUSING: Granville Flats, where Dean Richard Stewart was found dead after some time.

* Body lay in flat for months

* Inquest to probe pensioners' deaths

* Warning 15 years ago on elderly dying alone

A neighbour of Stewart, who would not be named, said she noticed a smell coming from the flat in late January.

"You can't miss that smell. It's putrid like off fish," she said.

She knew who Stewart was but didn't know him well enough to talk to.

She last saw Stewart last year. Whether the council did enough for its residents was "debatable", she said.

Another resident saw Stewart just after Christmas "and he was still all right".

Council spokesman Clayton Anderson said that following previous deaths, the council looked at "what we could do better in terms of keeping an eye out for our tenants".

This included more community engagement with older residents.

Another tenant lived in flat 45 for about 12mnths between Whakaue and Stewart, Anderson said. But Stewart, who had no known next of kin in New Zealand, was relatively young and kept to himself.

"We have to weigh up the privacy of our tenants," Anderson said.

The council last inspected his flat in April and was due for another inspection next month.

Another tenant had alerted the council to the body.

"We understand [Stewart] may have been dead for some time," Anderson said.

Ivan Trangmar, an old friend of Stewart's and a fellow Granville Flats resident, said Stewart had largely kept to himself.

"He was always laid back ... he liked his beer and all that sort," he said.

Trangmar found out about the death a while after the discovery, saying: "It was a shock to me."

Police spokesman Nick Bohm said there were no suspicious circumstances around the death.

How long the body lay unnoticed would be determined by the coroner.

He understood Stewart was originally from Australia. His Australian brother and sister travelled to New Zealand for a "small service" and took his ashes back to Australia.

In August 2011, the remains of another Wellington pensioner, Michael Clarke, 86, were found at his Newtown bedsit. Old newspapers and out-of-date-food suggested he could have died as long ago as June 2010.