Landlord Charging Fee for Excessive Trash! (Portland: apartment complex, renter, tenant)

[sippincoke]

Hello, I have a question for anyone who might have an answer! I've searched the internet and in the half hour i've been searching I haven't found a whole lot.

Just recently due to all the snow, the garbage / recycling company hasn't hauled the gargage away at our apartment complex. This led to an excessive overflow of garbage bags and recycling covering the compactor area.

As result, I could only put my garbage on top of the pile of mess. I wasn't going to keep it in my home!

Now, I have received a letter from my landlord informing me that I have violated one of the points in our agreement, not putting my trash where it belongs and is charging $50 to my account!

Well, I just simply can't see the justice in this. I've been looking intently to find a specific section telling of the Landlord's responsibility to have a space for my trash and arrange for its removal. It is the Landlord who pays for this service, including it as part of my rent.

It is clearly my responsibility to dispose of my trash and recycling properly, but if either my Landlord fails to get the trash removed so far that it literally overflows, am I still liable to put my trash in their correct designations?

I can't pay this fee because it just seems wrong. I just need some section on a law or regulation book I can specifically point to to make my Landlord understand THEIR responsibility, and their failure to comply.

ANY thing is appreciated!

[Minervah]

I don't know of the legality. Portland offers little in the way of renter protection. I have heard of this happening to others. It's pretty nasty of your landlord to do this if you had no choice but I know that landlords are charged for every bag outside the receptacle so he his probably just passing along the cost to you since it was your bag sitting on top.

Does your rental contract say anything about this situation? If not you are out of luck.

[davefr]

The very first thing you should do is pick up the phone and talk to your landlord and explain the circumstances which were brought about by the bad weather/irregular garbage service.

I would think this would be easy to negotiate unless your landlord is a total jerk.

[BLAZER PROPHET]

Originally Posted by davefr

I would think this would be easy to negotiate unless your landlord is a total jerk.

Or, maybe you should have cleared it first with the landlord and been a responsible tenant!

[subsound]

You should ask where the proper storage is for garbage when the bin is full, you pay them in expectation that the bin will be emptied in a timely manner. It's the storms fault the trash bin wasn't emptied, not any persons...they need to swallow the bill for the larger collection at a single time and not push it on the tenets.

[lilypad]

This is too bad, and doesn't seem fair. But in this area I have found much price gouging of each other, no doubt due to a bad economy, but still not justifiable in my opinion. I live in a smaller area south of Portland Metro, and called the garbage company, who said it was okay to leave excess garbage in black bags next to the garbage bin. I live in a house, however, and my landlord very reasonable about such things (also doesn't live here).

[subsound]

I think if some one came out and said "Due to the storm they are charging us more, we'll pay part and you pay part to get this junk out of here ASAP" it wouldn't strike me as odd or unreasonable. The fact they pushed it on you as a fine is not good. There are more and more for rent signs going up as an idea...

[karlsch]

Sometimes you wish you could hear the landlord's side of the story.