Tenancy Question: Waste disposal.

hierro

Hello,

I've been living in my rented accomodation for almost 6 months. I'm bloody sick of all the bills coming in but I appreciate the fact that you have to pay your way. One thing I have never been asked to cough up for was waste disposal. I have been renting for the last 7 years. Now I always felt that waste disposal was the landlords obligation to look after in the past. I'm not afraid of paying my way but I felt this was a step to far in how mean a landlord I have. I'm going to take one of three courses of action.

a) pay the Landlord.
b) mention the fact I want receipts detailing his PRSI number for rent relief credits and hope he drops is demand for waste.
c) gaive my notice and request b.

I have not paid for a straight months rent in 4 months and he only ever mentioned the ESB and Oil would be split between the tenants.

How does this compare to tenants and landlords situations on boards?

Sorry, if it's a poor forum for this but whats a guy to do?

laoisfan

Option B seems to be the best and yet you are correct - in rented accomodation the waste is paid for by the landlord (he should really factor that into what he charges for the place anyway).

If you have to pay for waste you would be entitled to claim relief on that as well as the rent. So, ask for receipts and also his tax number.

Would love to see the look on his face.

--laoisfan

fozzle

I thought the waste is only paid for if it's in your rental agreement, i've only rented for a few years but I've always had to pay for mine....

Kalina

Originally posted by fozzle
I thought the waste is only paid for if it's in your rental agreement, i've only rented for a few years but I've always had to pay for mine....

Likewise, my family live in rented accomodation and we've always paidfor our own waste disposal. Check your contract though.

shoegirl

I can sympathise with you, I'm in a similar situation where my landlord has suddenly started to charge me for ESB usage - at double the advertised ESB rate. I pointed this out to him and said it wasn't acceptable so he's promised to "sort it out." In the meantime while he is "sorting it out" I'm currently looking around for a new place to live.

Unfortunately there isn't a lot you can do here. Most places I know of factored the waste charges into the rent, but technically if you don't have it in writing in a lease, there isn't much you can do except move out.

Let's face it, landlords in Ireland have to be the meanest, stingiest, most miserly group of people alive. But rents are starting to fall slightly at the upper and middle level so take the opportunity to move on if you don't get satisfaction.

If moving out is too much of a problem (and I'm already dreading trying to get together the price of a deposit and face new charges for getting stuff like telephone installed etc) then ask him can the bill be in your name so you can get tax relief. If he refuses he's probably getting you to pay it and then claiming tax relief . . . a well know scam in the miser landlord class....

DaithiSurfer

I don't charge the tenant in my place for waste because i just pay the full management fee for the apartment up front and couldn't be bothered splitting it into waste charges.
If it ever happend (as is supposed to) that the waste is charged by weight or volume then i will make it the responsibility of the tenant.

On a broader note though. Its your waste, so you should pay for it, unless it specifcally states in your lease that its included in the rent then it isn't included and its your problem.
Remember if its not written anywhere that its covered in the rent then you cant say it is. If you want this written in i would think your rent would go up by as much and you wont get tax back on it.

Who creates it, you or your landlord?
If he created it then by all means make him pay for his share. Its only fair.

laoisfan

before i got on the property market a few months ago, i was renting for about 8 years (in Cork, Dublin and finally Laois).

In every place the waste was taken care of by the landlord, whether they factored it into the overall rent I do not know. It was not stipulated in the contract.

The best bet is to ask the landlord for their tax-number (if they insist on you paying), just tell them you will be claiming tax-relief. Also get receipts.

--laoisfan

DaithiSurfer

<B>
The best bet is to ask the landlord for their tax-number.
</B>

Why would a landlord give you his tax number?



Its only a recent development that there are actual charges for waste management anyway, so you may not have noticed it before. In the case of apartments the landlord probably paid the service charges, deducted it from his tax returns and that was it.
But now that the waste gestapo are on the go the bill for the waste is for the tenant, not the landlord(unless he wants to pay it and its in the lease), so they will come after you for not paying YOUR waste charges.
Bottom line is that its the tenant who produces it.
Remember if the landlord factors it into the rent, he wont be the one losing out. There will be a healthy charge for the renter, ost likely of the full wack onto the rent and a tax deduction for the landlord when he pays it.
I bet you would do better by just paying it yourself. Then you get the tax deduction and no rent increase.