Landlord Charging for Other Resident Rubbish Removal

Strebor123

Hi all,

I live in a block of flats and I have recently received a letter from my landlord about a TV being left out for rubbish collection.

It states the binmen have refused to collect and if it's not collected it will be removed by the landlord and residents from all the flats will be charged an equal amount for it.

This TV has nothing to do with me, is my landlord allowed to do this?
Hopefully somebody owns up and gets rid of the TV, but let's assume they don't.

Thanks!

Jake

Guest101

What does your tenancy say?

No matter what such removal costs approx £10 at the MOST

And I doubt they could charge you, as I doubt a court would find you had any liability

bouicca21

So who do you think should pay for its removal? Or do you think it should just be left there forever? Surely the easiest thing is just to get someone with a car to take it to the nearest tip/recycling point?

Guest101

bouicca21 wrote: »

So who do you think should pay for its removal? Or do you think it should just be left there forever? Surely the easiest thing is just to get someone with a car to take it to the nearest tip/recycling point?

Presumebly the person who left it there should pay... Or is that view abit to logical

jjlandlord

You say 'landlord': Are you a leasehold tenant or an AST tenant?

If the TV must be removed then IMHO it will be paid for through whatever service charge paid by the leaseholders, or indeed I think the cost will be directly invoiced to leaseholders if there is no fund (not sure if that can happen).

If you are an AST tenant (and thus your landlord is likely a leaseholder tenant himself), I would think that this has nothing to do with you.

Strebor123

I've never met the people in the other flats, I don't know them and I certainly don't want to be paying for their TV to be removed.

I've read through my tenancy and I can't see anything relating to rubbish removal in there (except relating to my own rubbish at the end of the tenancy)

Just wondered if there was a general rule to do with this sort of thing? It would baffle me if I were to be held jointly liable. Maybe when my sofa needs replacing I'll just leave that outside and everyone can pay a share to have that taken away, lol.

Strebor123

My tenancy is an AST.

bouicca21

Well of course the person who left it there should pay - but finding out who they are is likely to be a problem. If OP is a tenant rather than a leaseholder I tend to agree that it's a freeholder/management company problem.

tea-bag

I own a flat I rent out in a council block and this issue is a nightmare. I get charged £8 every time some council tenant leaves rubbish on the floor or a fridge or sofa or bed. We also get builders filling the bins up as they are the big grunden type things next to a car park. I have now refused to pay until they get CCTV put up to catch THEIR tenants who don't get charged.

princeofpounds

Just wondered if there was a general rule to do with this sort of thing?

Well sort of, although it's not like there is a rule book for fly tipping!

The fly tipper should be paying. But if they won't (clearly) and can't be traced, then the landowner/occupier will have to make their own arrangements.

In the case of a block of flats, the freeholder is likely the party who has to arrange the disposal. They in turn can probably charge the leaseholders (the flat owners) under the terms of the lease agreements; depends on how it is drafted.

The freeholder and the leaseholders may well be the same landlord you describe in your post, if he owns the whole building.

The leaseholders might have tenants (I.e. You). It would be very unlikely to ever have an AST agreement that has provision to charge you in turn, though not theoretically impossible.

So basically the landlord can invoice you all he likes for this, it doesn't mean you are remotely liable. If it is peanuts, then you might want to pay up to avoid confrontation, but I doubt a LL would ever seriously pursue or attempt to evict on what is likely to be about five quid worth of charges they aren't even entitled to. So it should also be easy to call their bluff (assuming the landlord doesn't somehow think you are the culprit!)

Strebor123

Thanks for the help folks! I will wait and see what happens. I've always favoured words over confrontation so if I do get invoiced I'll have a chat about it. Especially since I have an email from him describing my partner and I as model tenants! Haha. Thanks again.