My landlord sucks!!

RuggieBear

A notice of a litter fine recently came to the building where I rent an apartment, for the attention of the landlord.

The fine relates to 9 or so bin bags full of rubbish (un-tagged) that have been left on the path for maybe a month or more now.

I put a bin tag on my bag of rubbish every week and leave it out for collection, and I have never left un-tagged rubbish out or littered the place.

Therefore, I can only presume it is one of the other tenants in the building - and there are 5 apartments in total.

I spoke to the landlord on the phone this morning and he was suggesting to me that it wasn't his problem, and that the notice relates to the people living in the building and not to him (even though the council had put 'To the Landlord' on the top of the notice).

He even seemed to be suggesting that I should speak to the rest of the tenants in the building and that we, collectively, should arrange to pay the fine!! :mad:

Now, I don't think this is my responsibility at all! And in fact, I think I was doing him a favour by letting him know the notice had arrived rather than leaving it there and him getting summoned to court for non payment further down the line!

(I was even getting so fed up of this rubbish myself, that about two weeks ago I stuck a notice up in the hallway giving instructions on what to do with one's rubbish i.e. where to buy bin tags and where the tagged bags go for collection!! So it's obviously not my rubbish!!! :mad: )

It's driving me mad how useless our landlord is!

He never takes any responsibility for the upkeep of the place (I have repeatedly been on the phone to him and his plumber for months about a leak coming in the ceiling...but that's another story!)

He is without a doubt a true 'absentee landlord'!!

So, what are my rights here?

If he tries to get me to pay part of the fine what can I do? I want to leave in the near future so if he tries to keep part of my deposit back for the fine what can I do?

(P.S. If this is more suited to the Legal Discussion forum, or elsewhere, please feel free to move it!)

Sponge Bob

Give his full name and address and rsi number to the corpo litter warden , not your own. He is the landlord and is responsible even if absent. Keep receipts for your tags in case

RuggieBear

yeah...thought about that but i'm pretty sure i've thrown the receipt out. Still i do have a good few of the actual bin tags left...

Victor

To third parties, your landlord is responsible for the actions of the tenants. Write to your landlord enclosing the letter.

And stop reading his post!

RuggieBear

Victor wrote:

To third parties, your landlord is responsible for the actions of the tenants. Write to your landlord enclosing the letter.

And stop reading his post!

lol

Actually, I didn't open the letter ...one of my neighbours did (great neighbours, hey?) and just left it in the hall with all the other mail. I noticed it was open, read it and then realiesd i'd better get on to the landlord about it. Not as iif it would get to him any other way as he hasn't been to the house for at least a year

MorningStar

Victor wrote:

To third parties, your landlord is responsible for the actions of the tenants. Write to your landlord enclosing the letter.

And stop reading his post!

Since when is a landlord responsible for his tenants actions? If my tenant hits your car I don't pay he does. I agree morally you are responsible for their actions but legally you aren't.

Litter is different to an extent first off the bin stickers have to be provided by him ,(i think this defeats the reduce your waste Idea). He is responsible for his property. If a tenant dumps rubbish on the street the tenant is doing the illegal act. If the landlord doesn't provide stickers they might have a case against him but otherwise the tenant is responsible for their own actions.

The tilte of the thread shows complete disrespect to the landlord yet the person who seems to be more to blame is at least one of your fellow tenants.

eth0_

MorningStar wrote:

Since when is a landlord responsible for his tenants actions? If my tenant hits your car I don't pay he does. I agree morally you are responsible for their actions but legally you aren't.

The landlord is responsible if the tenant is displaying anti-social tendancies which are to the detriment of neighbours/fellow tenants, such as leaving rubbish out on the street for a month, which is an eyesore, smells and has incurred a fine for the ENTIRE building.

MorningStar

eth0_ wrote:

The landlord is responsible if the tenant is displaying anti-social tendancies which are to the detriment of neighbours/fellow tenants, such as leaving rubbish out on the street for a month, which is an eyesore, smells and has incurred a fine for the ENTIRE building.

Any legal backing on what you are saying. As a landlord can't really get a tenant out very easily legally to hold him responsible seems to be counter productive. If an individual dumps rubbish on the street the individual is responsible in all other situations what legal loop hole says otherwise?

I beleive the method of prosecuting means the fine is sent to the landlord but the same applies to any house that has rubbish put outside the building if you can prove you didn't do it then you are not fined. That was according to Pat Kenny when he was talking to the litter warden on the radio a while ago.

Victor

I'm not sure what act it is, but if as said a tenant engages in anti-social behavior, the landlord is responsible to third parties for rectifying the situation. This is to stop landlords from saying "it has nothing to do with me". The landlord has some control over the tenant.

Note it says "My landlord sucks!!" not "Landlords suck!! "

MorningStar

Victor wrote:

I'm not sure what act it is, but if as said a tenant engages in anti-social behavior, the landlord is responsible to third parties for rectifying the situation. This is to stop landlords from saying "it has nothing to do with me". The landlord has some control over the tenant.

Note it says "My landlord sucks!!" not "Landlords suck!! "

Is it a new act? The conditions of "rectifying" might be important. I would find it amazing that there is an anti social clause that gets used on landlords when the city council is a biggest landlord of anti-social behaviour in Dublin.

The landlord should be providing the bin stickers as I said so it shouldn't be a problem and I still not sure how they know the tenant dumped the stuff .

Blub2k4

Victor wrote:

Note it says "My landlord sucks!!" not "Landlords suck!! "

Dont be telling Morninstar defender of landlords and smiter of tenants things like that, the poor landlords must be defended!!!!!!

MorningStar

Blub2k4 wrote:

Dont be telling Morninstar defender of landlords and smiter of tenants things like that, the poor landlords must be defended!!!!!!

Note I pointed out the landlord should be providing the stickers.

The person who dumped the rubbish is responsible for their own actions do you want to defend them?

I like to bring balance in a place where it is popular to blame others than take responsibility for ones own actions.
(did you see Bruce Almighty last night to come up with "smiter")

RuggieBear

MorningStar wrote:

The tilte of the thread shows complete disrespect to the landlord yet the person who seems to be more to blame is at least one of your fellow tenants.

i'd agee with that. There is a tennant in here who's dumping their rubbish but respect is earned and our landlord has done nothing to earn my respect. we have had numerous small problems in here and it has taken countless phonecalls and effort to get things fixed.

Our landlord has to take responsibility for informing his new tennants of when bin day is, how to correctly put the rubbish out and where to get them...this fell on us when we decided to put up notes in the communal hall telling our fellow tenants,the necessary information.

We buy our own bin tags...i wouldn't expect a landlord to provide us that service.

Anyway, each tenant has just got a letter from the land lord today....

Dear RuggieBear,

Waste Collection

I have received complaints from your neighbour on ****** Place and a fine from Dublin City Council arising directly from the littering of the front of XX **** Place.

Please ensure to put out rubbish only if properly tagged on Wednesdays. Do not lave out untagged rubbish on any other day. Tags can be bought from post offices and some retail stores.

Henceforth, any fines imposed will be deducted pro rata from your deposits.

Thank you for giving this your attention.

Yours sincerely,

Mr. Landlord

I can't believe the deducting the fines from our deposits bullshit....I rent one apartment in his building....yet i run the risk of losing money if one of my fellow tennats doesn't tag his rubbish. Surely, he can not impose this Group responsibility on me?

I am not responsible for my neighbours

homah_7ft

RuggieBear wrote:

I can't believe the deducting the fines from our deposits bullshit....I rent one apartment in his building....yet i run the risk of losing money if one of my fellow tennats doesn't tag his rubbish. Surely, he can not impose this Group responsibility on me?

I am not responsible for my neighbours

You are correct. You are not responsible for your neighbours. He cannot deduct the fines from your deposit legally. This is a bad landlord! :eek:

Morrigan

The letter was addressed to the landlord. Therefore, whatever's inside is his problem, in my opinion.

RuggieBear

Just called him. Suggested that if he wanted to find out whose rubbish it is, he should call over,root though the bags and find something (like a letter) that might identify the tenant....he responded that he wasn't interested in that level of policing.:eek:

MorningStar

RuggieBear wrote:

i'd agee with that. There is a tennant in here who's dumping their rubbish but respect is earned and our landlord has done nothing to earn my respect. we have had numerous small problems in here and it has taken countless phonecalls and effort to get things fixed.

I don't agree with your view of respect, everyone should be treated with respect untill they do soemthing to loose it.

RuggieBear wrote:

Our landlord has to take responsibility for informing his new tennants of when bin day is, how to correctly put the rubbish out and where to get them...this fell on us when we decided to put up notes in the communal hall telling our fellow tenants,the necessary information.

Didn't they igonre the inforamtion you posted up. I hate to tell you if you share things with anybody you need to talk to them. If they dumped the stuff there or left it there after the information was provided what differnce does it make who informed them the same result.

RuggieBear wrote:

We buy our own bin tags...i wouldn't expect a landlord to provide us that service.

By law he has to provide them maybe I didn't make that clear

RuggieBear wrote:

Anyway, each tenant has just got a letter from the land lord today....

I can't believe the deducting the fines from our deposits bullshit....I rent one apartment in his building....yet i run the risk of losing money if one of my fellow tennats doesn't tag his rubbish. Surely, he can not impose this Group responsibility on me?

I am not responsible for my neighbours

He can't do that don't let him. He is handling this baddly. You should make certainly make him provide the stickers now to get some of your money back.

homah_7ft

RuggieBear wrote:

Just called him. Suggested that if he wanted to find out whose rubbish it is, he should call over,root though the bags and find something (like a letter) that might identify the tenant....he responded that he wasn't interested in that level of policing.:eek:

You did of course tell him he can't take any fine out of your deposit. It must be very frustrating ro you though having to deal with this. Clearly he only wants the money and not the responsibility.

RuggieBear

MorningStar wrote:

I don't agree with your view of respect, everyone should be treated with respect untill they do soemthing to loose it.

Didn't they igonre the inforamtion you posted up. I hate to tell you if you share things with anybody you need to talk to them. If they dumped the stuff there or left it there after the information was provided what differnce does it make who informed them the same result.

By law he has to provide them maybe I didn't make that clear



He can't do that don't let him. He is handling this baddly. You should make certainly make him provide the stickers now to get some of your money back.

I think we have the same idea of respect...JUST i've lost any respect I had for him over the last 12 months thru my dealings with him and his inability to help me solve issues arising in his property.

I think you missed my point wrt informing the other tenants...It's not my problem...i shouldn't have to talk to my neighbours if i don't want to. I just tried to give them information as the landlord failed to do so.

Could you supply me a source for the supplying of bintags to tennants? (while i actually do think it's unreasonable that he should pay for my bintags/rubbish , it would be great if he did have to pay for them ).


Oh, I made it quite clear what i thought of his group responibility. He gave me the impression that it was just a threat (He is actually a solicitor...and supposidly quite a good one)....

MorningStar

RuggieBear wrote:

I think you missed my point wrt informing the other tenants...It's not my problem...i shouldn't have to talk to my neighbours if i don't want to. I just tried to give them information as the landlord failed to do so.

Actually I think differently on that. You should at the very very least be civil to fellow tenants. It is your problem as these people are effecting your surroundings and your relationship with other neighbours. You don't want the problem but it effects you so it is your problem.

http://www.dublincity.ie/Images/Waste_brochure_tcm35-7354.pdf

Page 6 very clear

RuggieBear

MorningStar wrote:

Actually I think differently on that. You should at the very very least be civil to fellow tenants. It is your problem as these people are effecting your surroundings and your relationship with other neighbours. You don't want the problem but it effects you so it is your problem.

http://www.dublincity.ie/Images/Waste_brochure_tcm35-7354.pdf

Page 6 very clear

I'm civil to everyone - I have never said that I wasn't!

You're missing my point...it is not my obligation to inform the other tenants of anything i.e. how to dispose of their rubbish - it is the landlords obligation. I put up a notice informing people of the procedure because my land lord had failed to do so (be it through a phonecall/letter etc.)

I have no issue with my neighbours - obviously one of them has been dumping their untagged rubbish, but I don't know who, and therefore I will carry on saying 'hi' to them all in the hallway and being civil to them all.

This is my landlords problem and the last thing I want is to fall out with any of my neighbours!

RuggieBear

MorningStar wrote:

http://www.dublincity.ie/Images/Waste_brochure_tcm35-7354.pdf

Page 6 very clear

Page 6 is not very clear:

Private Apartments/Flats
If you live in a private apartment it is the responsibility of your landlord or management company to ensure that waste charges are paid and that bags or Eurobins are labelled. Eurobin Labels can be
purchased from the Customer Services Centre, Civic Offices Wood Quay, Dublin 8.

This seems to suggest that the landlord must ensure that their tenants label their bags - not that the landlord himself has to pay for the labels.

EDIT: I just telephoned the Council - according to them the landlord does not have to pay for bin tags. Whether they do or not depends on your lease agreement.

They said that the statement above means that whether the landlord pays or not, ultimately it is the landlord's responsibility to make sure it is paid i.e. if they have an agreement with their tenant that the tenant pays for the bin tags, then they have to ensure that the tenant does indeed pay for them (i.e. buy them & stick them on their bags rather than dump their rubbish!)

MorningStar

RuggieBear wrote:

They said that the statement above means that whether the landlord pays or not, ultimately it is the landlord's responsibility to make sure it is paid i.e. if they have an agreement with their tenant that the tenant pays for the bin tags, then they have to ensure that the tenant does indeed pay for them (i.e. buy them & stick them on their bags rather than dump their rubbish!)

Bloody council! I have be told more than once that the landlord does have to pay. It is currently costing me a lot of money. I'm going to get them to put this is writing now. THe tenants won't be happy but maybe they will reduce their waste at least

RuggieBear

MorningStar wrote:

Bloody council! I have be told more than once that the landlord does have to pay. It is currently costing me a lot of money. I'm going to get them to put this is writing now. THe tenants won't be happy but maybe they will reduce their waste at least

Do you pay for a wheelie bin or just tags for bags? I can understand you paying the annual standing charge for a wheelie bin but defo not the cost for each lift as well.

You must really be paying thru the nose if your tenants don't have to pay for their own waste. I know once the bintags were introduced, the amount of rubbish I put out more than halved.

What's to stop your tenants from dumping shit loads of stuff every week - or even other people's rubbish for them too?!

(I know for a fact if i had a wheelie bin that my landlord paid for...my mother would be around every week with all her rubbish too!)

mad m

Is there any chance someone outside your apartment is dropping a bag of theirs at night maybe when your bin day is due?

RuggieBear

mad m wrote:

Is there any chance someone outside your apartment is dropping a bag of theirs at night maybe when your bin day is due?

it's possible...

mad m

RuggieBear wrote:

it's possible...

Bloody night time bin droppers. Well in my opinion Ruggiebear there is no way in hell he should take any money from your desposit.Judge Judy?

RuggieBear

good luck to him if he tries

Victor

Its quite possible the council went through the rubbish and found something to link the rubbish to the particular property. That or there was eyewitness evidence.

RuggieBear wrote:

This seems to suggest that the landlord must ensure that their tenants label their bags - not that the landlord himself has to pay for the labels.

EDIT: I just telephoned the Council - according to them the landlord does not have to pay for bin tags. Whether they do or not depends on your lease agreement.

This was my understanding also. It was introduced to stop people saying "not my problem".