Landlord Dispute With Garbage Disposal & Lease

[progmac]

Originally Posted by kjbrill

Glad to see someone is still in tune with their garbage collection. I am just glad our collector supplied us with a separate container labeled Recyclable. Good thing to know I don't have to throw everything in the garbage. It is a good sized container and I hope they do something different with it. Where has this been? I had a former smaller box but it was totally inadequate.

Have to admit most of our soft residue hits the disposal. Since it's only difference is whether it has passed through our bodies, what is the difference? In my mind not much. Hopefully the water waste treatment people can do a good job of reclamation.

We try eveything we can to put the plastic products in the Recyclable bin. Do any of you thinks this does any good? Of course we rinse out the containers and send the residue down the venerable disposal. Same for our glass, metal cans, and other receptacles we now recycle. Are we being duped or is this a good process?

The value of recycling plastic is dubious, or so I've been told. My understanding is the energy savings associated with recycling metal, glass, and paper/cardboard is substantial.

We have the huge green recycling bin with wheels and it gets filled to the brim every second week.

Regarding the disposal, our food scraps go in the trash but then again our trash goes outside once a day since it gets filled up so quickly with so many mouths to feed in this house. If it was just me or just my wife and I, our food scraps would probably sit inside longer than I was comfortable with and I'd be installing a disposal.

[thebteam]

It may be beneficial for you to familiarize yourself with what foods can and cannot be placed in a garbage disposal. Some foods can be placed in the disposal without issues, but for some foods (like spaghetti), you don't want to do that.

What Not to Put in a Garbage Disposal
Garbage Disposal Do's and Don'ts - Plumbing & Drain Cleaning - DE, PA, MD | Horizon Services Inc.

Sounds like your landlord feels the garbage disposal issues are being caused by improper foods placed in the disposal, and that has led to maintenance/repair costs that your landlord has had to pay for directly.

[reenzz]

You can break your lease for habitability issues (lack of heat, water, electric). The lack of a garbage disposal does not effect the habitability of the rental.

[kjbrill]

I have lived in my house for 39 years and have never considered the garbage disposal to be an issue. I believe I am on my 3rd disposal so achieved a better than 13 year life each. I also have never considered what items I toss into the disposal except for the obvious grease.

But don't go cheap on a garbage disposal. I won't go for anything less than a 3/4 horsepower motor and stick with InSinkErator, since they have a twist on mounting plate making replacement a snap.

But if it fits, it goes down the disposal.

BTW, I am the type who wipes off every dish before it goes into the dishwasher. The water I run to do this goes down the disposal. And so what, where does the dishwasher exhaust into? - the disposal.

So I do not understand this idea that disposals are unable to take certain foods. Over 39 years there has been more rice and spaghetti down our disposal than you can count. When we crack an egg, where does the shell go? - you got it the disposal. If something inadvertently goes bad in the frig where does it go? - yep the disposal. All of our trimmings from meats such as pot roast where? - the disposal. It is definitely my friend, perhaps one of the most used appliances in our house.

[Liberty_420]

I have a friend who went through much worse (i.e.. kitchen sink broke). The "landlord" did nothing to fix it until my friend was so fed up he gave an intent to vacate notice months later. At this point, which was already to late, the landlord fixed it. My friend still moved out (3 months to lease end). Needless to say, he was sued, went to court to fight it and lost.

If you move out and the place is livable, you will be liable for all charges throughout the entire lease term, or until the unit is rented out again. In my friends case, livable meant did you have access to water (even though it was from the bathroom)?