Dublin City Council Littering Fine

calsatron

I've currently recieved 2 littering fines from South Dublin County Council for the alleged offence of living binbags out for street collection without the appropriate tags.

As a resident of a shared apartment block, all the apartments are rented and owned by the one landlord, I put my binbags in a large shared bin in the carpark at the rear of our block, a representative of the landlord then moves this bin out onto the street for collection. This procedure works fine and has worked for the last four years although I'm currently unaware of exactly what agreement/setup the landlord has in place for rubbish collection.

Now I'm going to appeal the fine's on the basis that the bags were left on the street not due to a failure on my behalf but on the behalf of the landlord, so any fine if applicable should be his responsiblity.

The fines are coming to me on the basis that the council went through the bags and found my name and address details.

Anybody had any dealings with the council about stuff like or this or any recommendations on how to proceed?

Cheers

Chris

eth0_

As an aside, i'd advise you to invest in a paper shredder!

calsatron

Point taken, tinfoil hat on and shredder purchased. Awaiting further surveillance attempts from "the man".

The_Conductor

As the rubbish belonged to you, technically you are responsible for it. If I were in your position- I would pay the fine and bring it to the attention of the landlord. If I were the landlord, I would knock it off your rent for next month as a good will gesture, and have a scream at the kid who puts out the rubbish.

You must be able to close the bin, and there must be no bags/refuse left other than in the bin.

Littering occurred, and it was your litter- even if it shouldn't have been there.

Your argument is with your landlord, not with the council. The council must be satisfied first though.

the_syco

calsatron wrote:

Point taken, tinfoil hat on and shredder purchased. Awaiting further surveillance attempts from "the man".

Cop on. Most likely, a letter, or advertisement, with your name and address somehow found its way onto a street, was picked up, and a letter was sent to your address. If a ball of shredded paper rolled down the street, the owner wouldn't get located, or fined.

Brooklyn74

You should probably be ready to pay the fine and try to get reimbursed by your landlord. But it would do no harm to ask your local councillor to make an appeal on your behalf. He/she might be able to convince the council to waive the fines this time and to send a warning letter to your landlord instead.

calsatron

Thanks,

I'll have a bash with an appeal to the council, it seems quite a simple process. Just fill an appeal form and send it off to them they should be back within 21 days all going well.

If that fails then I'll approach my landlord. The chances of him stumping up out of the goodness of his heart though are slim to none so I'll give the PRTB a bell and see if he's obliged to pick up the cost.

Cheers for the help.

Victor

I would talk to the landlord now and make sure he is part of the appeal. You can't just land it on him in a months time.

calsatron

I would but he's currently refusing to give us his contact details, all contact's through his representative that call's once a month for the rent.

The last problem we had, a broken couch, required:

1 letter detailing our proposals
1 copy of the residential tenancies act
1 threat to purchase new couch and deduct the money from the rent
1 uncomfortable meeting
1 large pain in the hole

He seem's reasonable enough but I'd imagine margins are getting tight for him so his willingness to deal with additional expenditure, as he see's it, is becoming less and less.

DonJose

calsatron wrote:

I would but he's currently refusing to give us his contact details, all contact's through his representative that call's once a month for the rent.

His rep calls once a month for the rent? Do you pay your rent in cash? Thhis sounds dodgy and sounds like your landlord is avoiding paying taxes. You should ask the rep for your landlords address and PPS number, say you need it for your rent relief form.

http://www.revenue.ie/forms/rent1.pdf

calsatron

Nah he's all above board.

I claim my rent relief and he's registered with the PRTB so no complaints on that front.

Its just difficult for two people with opposing interests to meet in the middle sometimes. He wants get money in and spend as little as possible and I want to get the maximum possible value for the service I'm paying for.