The inquest heard that he had been living in the flat unofficially.
Mr Derrick, the dead man's friend and drinking partner, had invited him to stay there because he had nowhere else to go.
But when he died suddenly, Mr Derrick panicked and worried that he might be evicted.
A year after the death, a mobile council warden was called to inspect the flat after complaints of a terrible smell.
Sandra Wedlock told the court that she had walked by an overturned sofa at the property in the Bedminster area of the city without noticing the body underneath it.