Trash from Property to Sidewalk and back again
This might be a dumb question, but I own a 4 unit property and have been hit with two $50 fines stating
"Violation Code and Description:
107141 - Premises not litter free"
Basically trash bags being on the property outside of cans because they've overflown. They've overflown because no one put the trash cans onto the curb.
I could somehow try to get tenants to do it, could write it into leases, but I don't particularly want a bunch of $50 trash whodunnits.
I have to imagine that many landlords just pay someone to put the trash cans onto the curb. Most "trash collection services" look pretty heavy duty for my puny apartment building.
Does anyone have a recommendation for a service provider that would just take cans to the curb and bring them back in the morning? How much should doing this weekly cost?
Not sure if this is an option but in SF you can pay extra to have the trash company go in your gate or garage to get the trash.
What class of tenants are these? If B- and below maybe you can offer one tenant lower rent to do it. If higher end tenants maybe hire a local kid or task rabbit
Thank you for your quick response!
Hah, how does one determine the tenant lettergrade? First I've heard of that but I get what you're saying.
Ideally I'd like to have a tenant do it. The tough thing is that I'm the one on the hook for the ticket, maybe I can offer a lease where they get a discount but it's written in that they're on the hook for litter tickets...
Thoughts on a reasonable amount to offer (I know it depends on the market, does $50/month seem reasonable? $100/month?)
@Roger Beaman Everyone has a different definition see below.
I guess my point is the higher end the property and clientele the higher level of service that is expected and should be provided so that they renew their lease. But if $50 to $75/mo means a lot to a tenant and they are willing to take the trash out and it works with your cashflow numbers it will avoid those pesky fines and turnover/vacancy which is probably much more costly
I found this one from this string helpful https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/52/topics/145...
"A" Tenant = Professionals with good credit, pays on time and takes care of the place. They could clearly be homeowners but they just decide to rent.
"B" Tenant = Decent Credit, Pays on time most of the time, doesn't completely destroy the house
"C" Tenant = Bumpy Credit, When rent is due you're biting your nails wondering if the payment is coming, you have to occasionally keep them in line and they require more interaction
"D" Tenant = No thanks......
Reporting back @Sean Walton as this might be interesting. The tenants actually do not mind just keeping their trash in their unit trash cans and taking it out to the curb once/week. I checked with each one of them, confirmed that they would not mind, and have since then just removed the trash can from out front.
It seems that the trash can being out front invited people who were looking for a place to dump their extra trash (or types of trash that the city is unwilling to collect). I doubt that the trash issues were even caused by my tenants. Now that the can has been removed, zero issues, humans are interesting social animals eh.
Interesting. I’ve often wondered if trash cans invite more litter or solve it. Glad you worked it out!
In my area, 3-plexes and 4-plexes, generally one tenant is given a rent reduction for handling garbage cans and garbage bags, pulling the cans and bags out to the curb, and back again after collection.
The triplex next to mine is a good illustration. One owner had a tenant handling. Some years back when recycling started, the property changed hands, the new owner assigned 3 pails to each tenant, for regular, paper, and plastic garbage, so each will handle their own. There were several problems with this approach. First, the tenants were less than diligent with pulling cans out, and worst in retrieving it, cans roll around the sidewalk for days. Second, with recycling, there's not enough garbage in some of the cans, the cans are so light for recycling plastics, they get blown over and roll away. The obvious solution is to compensate one tenant to handle it all. In fact, there's usually just enough garbage for plastic recycles to barely fill one can, but assigning one tenant to the task requires some compensation.
I once paid a retired gentlemen next door $100/month plus use of the driveway. He's slightly disabled but he sits in front of his house next store all day, or by the window during winter time. He pulls out the garbage pails, pulls it in as soon as the truck collects the garbage. He also sweeps the sidewalk, and volunteers to change light bulbs in the hallway. One time I got a ticket for rubbish on the sidewalk. He called me to say he knew what happened. The garbage crew was in a bit of a hurry, while emptying the garbage into the truck, missed, dropped quite a bit on the sidewalk and street. They picked up some, but not all, and then the inspector can 10 minutes later, and wrote the ticket. He said if I want to fight the ticket, he will go with me as a witness. Ah, he was wonderful, and good help is so hard to find these days. His son is a Judo black belt, his bedroom faces my back yard, and once caught someone trying to break into the house through the back. He called me and put the guy on the phone and I told the guy next time he's going to get arms broken, besides our calling the cops. The guy cried and begged me to let him go and I felt sorry for him and agreed.
#2 General Landlording & Rental Properties Contributor
Send a notice to all tenants informing them that they will each be held responsible for the trash fines. When you receive a fine they will each be assessed a $15 fine. The extra $10 is our pita fee
There is no reason not to hold tenants responsible, they are not children but often must be treated that way.
Each tenant being held responsible may help but if not you at least get your money back. If they do not include fee with rent apply the fee to the rent payment first and send a order to pay notice.
If you want to train tenants you must be strict.
Originally posted by @Thomas S.:Send a notice to all tenants informing them that they will each be held responsible for the trash fines. When you receive a fine they will each be assessed a $15 fine. The extra $10 is our pita fee
There is no reason not to hold tenants responsible, they are not children but often must be treated that way.
Each tenant being held responsible may help but if not you at least get your money back. If they do not include fee with rent apply the fee to the rent payment first and send a order to pay notice.
If you want to train tenants you must be strict.
This won't work where I am. I don't know whether you have recycling up where you are. We tried getting tenants doing it,. They have to know which are recycling days, and which can is regular garbage, and which is paper and which is plastic.
Some years back, I lived in a triplex next to the one I described above. The owner got nine garbage pails, 3 for each tenant. They either pull it out on the wrong days, pull it out late so a full can of garbage will be there for days, or don't pull it till days later. One windy winter day, there were nine cans rolling on the sidewalk and streets.
We had an interesting experience with an inspector. We take care of garbage for our building, but leave it up to the tenants to put the right type of garbage to the right cans. We wife was on the way out to work and found the inspector going through the garbage. He was going to write us up on putting regular garbage into the recycling can. While talking to the inspector, one tenant was on the way out to work, was told him he put the garbage into the wrong can. He said, "no I didn't, must be the guy in the first floor, or maybe your husband". Then the 3 of them were discussing pieces of garbage in the can, and which ones belong in which can, and to which tenant. This went for a while, my wife and the tenant were dressed for work, running late, so told the inspector the discussion would have to continue another day. To her surprise, the inspector said "let me separate it and pull the can out for you guys".
For buildings we don't live in, for triplexes, for each tenant to handle there own garbage, you need nine cans. To make them pay you a fine, you have to determine the tenant on the first floor didn't throw regular garbage into the third floor tenant's can. Then, sometimes passers by or their visitors are guilty. So trying to collect the $15.00 nuisance fine would open up a whole can of worms.
And a year ago, the city here introduced recycling food scraps, involving another can. So for a triplex, for tenants handling their own garbage, that's 12 cans, and a 4 plex, 16 cans. If you don't live there, you have to visit on garbage collection days to see what garbage goes into which cans, if not, who threw the wrong garbage into the wrong cans, and who pulled the cans out and who didn't. If you don't pay a tenant and have a tenant responsible, you'll have a dozen cans on the sidewalk on collection days, and there isn't enough room on the sidewalk for all of them without pedestrians tripping over them and suing. You have to be there, see what's going on before you can write them up. I rather pay someone $100 month to handle than try to be the nasty inspector. I haven't gotten fines for a while, but it's more than $50.00 each when I last got them over 15 years ago.
#2 General Landlording & Rental Properties Contributor
"This won't work where I am."
We do have recycling, it is not rocket science and every adult of reasonable intelligence can manage it. Tenants are inherently lazy unless they are otherwise motivated.
If you believe your tenants to be intellectually challenged to the point that they can not manage the recycle system you have a problem. If on the other hand you are simply making excuses for them and do not want to hold them responsible that is a entirely different problem.
As much as I realise tenants must be trained like children you also must hold them responsible as adults. Many landlords treat tenants in the reverse (train like adults and treat like children). If you choose to not make the effort to train then spending money to hire someone to sort your tennat garbage is one solution. Alternately you could send them all a notice explaining the situation and indicating that if there is another fine that you are simply increasing all rents to cover the potential costs. All it takes is for one of your tenants to be a responsible adult.