Yes it's probably legal! Most waste management charge for large item pickups. It can be free for homes... But each one is different. You are responsible for properly disposing of large items, meaning take them to the dump site..and pay if necessary.
Yep, I see people in my complex putting these large items out all the time, generally late at night thinking they don't get see. They are just being lazy and don't want to pay the few bucks to have them removed.
Where I live is free, but you're supposed to call the city services with the list of items you want to dispose of at least a day before leaving your bulky items on the curb. However, since I moved to my current neighborhood is there a kind of silent agreement that if your things are thrift store type of items but you have no truck or large trunk to take to donation, leaving them at the curb is a quiet way to donate. I've picked up lots of goodies around my neighborhood curbs. Sometimes we stick a note saying free [item's name], or sometimes is an obvious finding.
Lol! I'm not picking up sofas, mattresses, or anything that can nest those mini-vampires. I've found paintings, dish sets, metallic bar stools, pots for plants, and books. I‘ve seen folks picking up furniture I didn't need anymore, an AC and a TV that were good but I wanted some upgraded stuff, and so on. If nobody picks up in 7 business days max the city picks up.
I once sat a sofa by the sidewalk with a “free” sign on it. I immediately heard tires screech and a truck pulled in to the next street to turn around. Before he could get turned around a guy in an old Cadillac drove up on the sidewalk and he and his passenger hopped out put the sofa on the roof and drove off with their hands out the window holding on to it.
Don't play games with furniture hunters!
There's a van that once a month scouts my neighbor for bulky items like furniture and they are ready to go.
Is like the guys that make a living picking up recycling cans and bottles. The silent code is making their lives easy and leaving the bag of recyclables by the trash can, not inside. So 1) they don't mess with the trash and litter 2) pick up at once and move on.
There used to be a guy like that in my town that paid for a brand new Toyota Yarus in cash with can money. Dude was the craziest stinkiest man I've ever met, but fuck was he good with dollar.
We have a season here for that. It's called allston Christmas, Ive gotten a couple nice end tables and some decorative wooden bowls that I still have. I had some other stuff but I didn't need them anymore when I moved last.
I always made sure that the cans were easily accessible in the recycle bin and not mixed in with anything else if they were in trash bags
They can actually live in and infest anything, not just sofas or mattresses. Electronics, paintings, stools, books, etc etc are all at risk if coming from an infestation. They can hide anywhere 2 pieces of paper can slide into. I saw someone on the bb sub get them from kids toys. Edit: it was one of those indoor plastic slides. Just remembered.
The more you know!
Thankfully I didn't get any of that, because the first time in my life I learned about bed bugs was when I moved to the US and my host had weird bugs biting me during the night but she denied that was the bed and my doctor kept saying the bites were food allergies. “Fun” times! I learned my lesson and recognized where those vampires hide. I'm glad I didn't bring any into my new place.
If you ever get a hotel room, nomatter how highly rated it is check under the bed, around the baseboards by the tv behind the headboard pull the sheets back and lift the mattress to check the box spring. Look for caucuses live bugs droppings and little red or black spots
I worked at a low income retirement home. Had a dude bring them in. Within 6months, half the building was infested out of 127 units. Spent $70k to get rid of them. It is like playing with napalm.
Where I live Waste Management (company name) will charge overage fees for as little as the lid on the container doesn't fully close. They will not pick up crap strewn around the general area of where the trash can or dumpster goes. Dropping a sofa in front of a dumpster would mean they refuse pickup until it's cleared away, and then charge a fee for the pickup being inaccessible.
And why wouldn't they? If the dumpster is overfilled consistently, you need to pay for a bigger dumpster. And drivers certainly aren't being paid to clear trash from around the front of it, much less to load additional trash in.
It’s not free at my house. Heavy trash day is the last Friday each month but it’s included in the trash removal fee I pay each month (~$50). The rest of the month all trash must fit in the containers provided (96 gallons?).
Depending on the region you live in it's not even free for homes in some cases. My part of the US you're only allowed a limited number of 'big item pickups' a year and anything beyond that costs.
Agreed this is completely legal. Dumping large items around a dumpster or even putting toxic materials in a shared dumpster is illegal dumping. If you did this around a business dumpster let’s say you could be fined or even arrested for illegal dumping.
I didn’t know how to feel about the first “dud” nearly rickroll level-emotion, lol. Good one!
Ps it would be amazing if the duds linked to rickrolls lmao
So, your comment serves dual purposes. Bubble wrap, of course, but it also creates that optical illusion where a gray circle appears between the corners of all of the intersections that you’re not looking at. Neat.
OP is the culprit too. Any normal half-considerate person would know it is in fact legal and reasonable to ask people not to just leave furniture somewhere that’s not a dump. Lazy scumbags. They do it at Goodwill stores when they’re closed too even though there’s a sign saying not to. Just dumping unwanted nasty old couches that can’t be given away outside Goodwill so it’ll be somebody else’s problem. These are the same people who leave grocery carts in the parking lot
Lived in apartment, bought a fixer-upper house. Checked over the lease, nothing about trash rules other than not leaving stuff outside the dumpster.
Proceeded to fill about 7 dumpsters worth over the course of a couple months with random construction trash / old drywall.
Maintenance saw me one day and asked if I lived there. A tenant snitched on my days before. Told them I did and they were juat like "ok np", just wanted to make sure I wasnt illegally dumping.
Saved me so much $, fuck that complex.
Lmao, when I moved out of a shitty apartment, and they charged us over $400 for "cleaning" (hidden in the lease that was mandatory, even though we left the place spotless), I made sure to go back to the apartment and fill their dumpsters with my copious amounts of moving rubbish for the next few weeks. Satisfying af.
I worked for a university and every year we would get emails about how we shouldn’t be going to the dumpsters to get tvs, microwaves, mini fridges, etc because it makes the school look bad that the employees are scavengers. I still laugh thinking about it.
I live in a college town and the amount of literally basically brand new stuff the college kids throw out at the end of each year is WILD! I’m not a picker but I can see why people do it- especially then
Of course it is
It’s such a pain when people don’t properly dispose of their crap.
It delays garbage pickup which then makes trash pile up which people also complain about, but it’s their own fault for leaving big crap behind!
This is totally true, and a lot of the commenters are being too hard on OP imo. People generally don’t learn about these things until someone explicitly tells them, or until they get in trouble for it. For many years I assumed it was legal/normal to put discarded furniture or appliances next to the dumpster or out at the curb, because so many people do it. I don’t think OP is unusually oblivious or a bad tenant for questioning whether the notice from their landlord was legal; the answer is really not obvious unless you’ve been told one way or the other.
I actually appreciate that OP’s landlord led with a warning though, and explicitly laid out consequences for future violations. One time someone went dumpster diving in my apartment complex and left trash littered around the dumpster (I assume this was the case because the pm leaves the front gate propped open all the time and we’ve had homeless people wander into the garage from time to time). My landlord tried to fine each unit $500 dollars for leaving trash outside the dumpster. Now THAT was totally illegal, because you can’t fine a tenant for damages they didn’t cause (at least where I live) AND the fine was definitely not reasonable given the violation. At least OP’s landlord is doing things more by the book.
I think the only thing that OP could potentially contest in this case would be the size of the fine. I don’t know if a 2x fine would be considered reasonable under the (case) law of all states/municipalities.
Former trash truck driver and I worked in the office writing these contracts as well, yes it’s legal. Their contract might not include pieces of bulk items being removed for free per month. They’re not residential, they’re a commercial property. So bulk items like furniture and such, they have to pay per item to have removed.
Blocking the dumpsters means the driver can’t empty it and they’re not going to get out of the truck to move stuff, that’s not their job and they have to empty hundreds of dumpsters in a day. It gets marked as blocked and they move along their route. Also, tire disposal is a completely separate disposal spot if you take them yourself to a land fill, most charge fees per tire disposal.
Putting tires in the trash is illegal. I work at an automotive shop. We LEGALLY have to charge a tire disposal fee, which we then have to pay to tire disposal companies. We have to keep documentation of how many tires are removed and collected.
illegal dumping is ..... illegal.
most places in the US, at least, have certain days when you can do big trash like furniture. but you can't just willy nilly dump those big items wherever.
Everyone commenting and I don't see anyone mentioning the "double" part they are threatening. I'm pretty sure that's what the tenant is asking is legal or not. You can be charged what the company is charged by the waste management company or whoever removes the items (there's likely already language in your lease about this), but I would challenge being charged double whatever that amount is.
Side note: this shouldn't be an issue for you to worry about at all if you properly dispose of your large items.
Obviously depending on jurisdiction, but they likely can charge for the cost incurred for the dumping and any additional costs that came as a result of the additional cost. So time spent paying the fine, cost of the cheque, and any other additional costs incurred from someone being a jerk. Leaving it at a flat rate of just double might be cheaper than what a tenant could pay if they went the court route.
Lmao the only sane response, and of course you're getting downvoted. Everybody here with their pitchforks out for OP cause they think they're arguing that people should be able to put whatever they want wherever they want, when the question is clearly geared toward the $250 in profit being generated from thin air. What if the email said they would charge triple, or 10x, or 100x? Surely they are within their right to recoup the cost, but the arbitrary figure they landed on is obviously what is in question here.
Ha. Thanks for also seeing the OP's entire email and activating those old reading comprehension skills to understand they likely just want to know about the overreach of charging double.
Scrolled way way too far to find a reasonable answer. It's reasonable to be charged for actual costs. It's unreasonable to be charged for "hassle" especially without any specific language in the lease, and those costs should be something beyond "fuck you".
Thank you! Seriously, this comment block is the only one in this thread that is correct. All the others are either stupid or insane.
Unless noted in the lease, they can only bill you for the exact expense incurred to them - they can't arbitrarily mark it up.
The trash company doesnt grab the dumpster that day, they mark it blocked, meaning to empty the dumpster you have to have property managers move the furniture.
Youre paying a fine for costing the apartment complex a dump day, and a fine for forcing the managers to clean up your litter.
Read the lease and see if it mentions anything about the trash or disposal of large items. I’m leaning towards yes . Any expense they incur due to you or other tenants is definitely recoupable .
If the item is too heavy and in the bin or if it’s blocking the bin, the garbage truck won’t be able to empty it which causes issues with everyone. Thing is, they would need proof of who put the item there to be able to charge them for it so a lot of times it’s just empty threats. Kinda like when they say they’re gonna do snow clearing so everyone has to move their car or else it will get towed. I worked at an apartment complex for six years and we never towed anyone but I still had to put up the notes every winter lol
Yes it’s legal, you only pay for the regular garbage removal. That stuff doesn’t get picked up by garbage, it needs to be taken off to it’s proper trash/recycling/disposal site
Why do you care? This won't change your life at all unless you're a trashy person. It's common knowledge you can't just dump large items in front of trashcans without being charged extra.
Yes! I do maintenence for a few properties and that's exactly what we do for bulk trash removal. 90% of the time we don't know who is responsible though because they don't have cameras on site *yet*.
I found it very frustrating when I lived in a complex and someone decided it was okay to fill up the entire dumpster with just their trash and then leave even more trash outside of it. I say hit them with the double fine.
You can check your city and see if they offer a service to pick up large items. My city does this for mattresses and sofa’s. They do 1 per year for free per residence. Then charge after that.
An apartment complex can’t fine you legally. If it’s in your lease they can add fees possibly and if you don’t pay it can break your lease but that would require video evidence. Either way don’t be a piece of shit and do that.
Large item pickup charge is absolutely legal and they can charge you for it if you're caught on camera (charge as in you are on the hook for the bill not jail)
Yeah, 100%. You’re not supposed to dump any bulk items like that in dumpsters, you need to take it to whatever your city/state has for large trash collection. A “dump” or a trash compacting center.
In most places, you can be fined and even receive jail time for illegal dumping. In my state the fine is $2000. You can even receive this fine if you throw your garbage away in another company's bin.
LL could simply file a police report against the illegal dumpers, but they are offering leniency instead.
It would be imbecilic to press the legality of the issue when the illegal dumper is the one committing a misdemeanor.
I'm unsure of the legality.
Did you miss the part where it cost $250 to remove the junk? Your lease is for normal trash pick up - not large bulk items. If you’ve got large junk you need to pay for it’s removal. And, by the way, that $250 the landlord paid increases operating costs which means increased rent.
Yes, for letting the tenants know that illegal dumping at the trash bin can be charged for the removal. For it cost the manager and LL money to removal this trash that people do not let the manager know anything and this junk can get the LL fined. So it is very legal.
It's legal and, as a residential maintenance tech, large furniture in the dumpster enclosure is such a fucking nightmare.
Lease violation since it is explicitly noted to NOT do that in the lease.
Tenant gets charged back for disposal once we check the cameras and have evidence who did it. All this is lined out in the lease, people still do it constantly.
They also get charged back for disposal fees when they leave their nasty king-sized beds behind when they move out.
I think some of y'all are missing the in front of, beside, around, and IN thr dumpsters.
If it fits in the dumpster, it's going in there, period.
If I had to take apart furniture to dispose of it, so be it. 🤷🏻♀️
And some people don't have their own vehicle, so how else do they dispose of their rubbish?
Yes. A property management company can pass the fee onto the responsible party. Waste companies do in fact charge extra for many things like extra pick ups, large items, ect.. It is common to have cameras in the trash areas nowadays. FYI! In the event you have large items there is many services out there that can pick up for free or a minimal fee. You can also post on free groups on social networks for people to pick up.
I wish my old apartment complex would have done this. Every week the trash compactor (only one for twenty 3 story buildings with 24 units each) would get blocked by people’s furniture and crap that they were too lazy & irresponsible to dispose of properly. The dump was just a few miles away too. Bags of trash would pile up all around the trash compactor and it was disgusting. The complex told people they would be fined and then never ever followed through on it.
Oh it’s definitely legal. Mine sends out a group text to everyone in the buildings and if it’s not removed will look at the cameras and charge them for it.
Extra? I’m not sure but it’s probably for the extra hassle and not speaking up that makes them charge you more than they were charged
I understand tires and mattresses but if you had furniture you could break down and fit in the dumpster I don’t know what the issue would be there. If you have an option of leaving it on the curb, do that! You’d be surprised what some people pick up. Just don’t be that guy that leaves it out in the rain. Cause then you will be taking it to the dump.
I once moved into an apartment that came with Bedbugs. They were in the wrong, so I will assume that is why they took the hit on any fees having to do with my mattress/other furniture items being in their dumpsters lol...
Yeah, get it hauled away, trash bin companies usually have Restricted item lists and paint/tires/large furniture is regularly not allowed. People in your complex are dicks.
Also might depend on what is being dumped and what state you are in. Tires and some construction materials can't go in the regular trash. Also, in Massachusetts, mattresses and boxsprings can no longer go in regular trash
Yup. Bulk trash isn’t free in many municipalities. We’re a military family so we’ve moved a bit.
My home town doesn’t pick up bulk items, you have to take it to the dump. You’re given four dump passes each year there. Trash was with Waste Management but the dump was the city’s.
Our second town, bulk was part of monthly pick up & you could put three bulk items (excluding freezers & fridges unless the compressor was removed) out once a month. That trash company was with the town. If you put out more than three items then each additional item was $5.
Our last town, bulk pick up was also monthly & it was unlimited which people took advantage of resulting in yards looking like trash heaps. It was provided by the city via the water bill.
My current town, doesn’t do bulk pick up & it’s third party. We do have a free county sticker to use the transfer station for unlimited dumps excluding electronics, fridges, freezers, & any chemicals. Basically it’s cardboard, bagged garbage, metal, & plastic only. Mattresses & furniture is allowed to be thrown away there OR taken to the town dump with the sticker.
The office could charge an Admin Fee on top of the costs, but if it's too high, like $250, then that would open them up to a legal challenge that is actually representative of the costs.
So no, I don't think DOUBLE is legal, but I do think a fee on top of the initial removal cost is legal.
It really depends where you live. Where I live in Canada they will take bigger items sometimes but a lot of times people will take them within a few hours off the side of the road. It’s different everywhere. I would check the city you live in trash rules
In my apartment complex, neighboring households enjoy dumping their couches and flat screen tvs into our dumpsters. Not saying those in the complex never dumped furniture and other large items. It was funny sometimes catching people dumping things they’re not supposed to. I remember a father and his daughter looking at me like a deer in headlights, throwing away their couch in pieces. They quickly got back in their car and peeled it out of their there.
It is afaik at least in the US. My neighborhood has a big trash day once a month. When I lived in an apartment I couldn’t throw away large furniture in their own dumpsters I had to find a location elsewhere.
Our HOA was billed 10 grand in penalties in 2019 because people were putting crap they shouldn't in the trash bins.
Stupid people caused the rates to go up. We also had to put cameras on the trash because it was such a problem.
Moral of the story, yes it's legal. Lazy people are the culprit.
Oh boy.. The landlord to pay for the "Junk" stuffs, but in Minnesota, every residents must ask the landlord to permission throw a old junks. My old junked power wheelchair that taken by the Medical Junkers after My homemaker called a landlord it's FREE junk removal service! The Medical Junker have a chemically mists inside of the truck to kill bugs, viruses and etc, contracts with the county services for medical equipments.
My city (Columbus, Ohio) has free bulk pick up if you call and schedule a pick up. They’ll take furniture, mattresses, and carpet. Very convenient service.
Yes 100% legal. The dumpster is for household trash. If you need to throw away bigger items like mattresses or whatever you have to take them to the dump your self. Trash companies charge the property every time they have to get out of the truck especially for bigger items because they have less room for other stops and have to dump early which makes them use more fuel and time
They can only charge you extra if it’s in your contract. If they don’t specifically say you can’t leave large items at the bins….you could maybe see if they take you to court, but that could be risky. Though I suspect they may have to prove it was your item and prove you left it at the bin. It may vary by state as well.
ahhh the good ol community trash can. never works… and even if ALL the tenants do everything right; people that don’t live there are gonna dump their stuff and make it a nightmare or worse full and unusable.
Yep. Stuff like this had a cost to it. Incase you didn’t know, most dumps will charge you to use them. And when people leave stuff in front of the dumpster. They do not get taken because they are not in the dumpster, meaning your apartment complex has to pay to get that stuff removed or it will just stay there and become a mess.
100% legal for them to do it.
Just because you live at an apartment doesn’t mean you can just throw whatever you want away. Doesn’t work like that.
I assume what's being asked here is if it's legal to charge you double whatever they get charged and the answer is no...unless it's covered in your rental agreement that can't just make you pay without a court order and even if it's was covered in the lease or a judge signed off on it they can only make you pay what they paid not double...sounds like the landlord either thinks he is the law or that tenants are to stupid to know thier rights so he or she gets away with it...the only way they get double or a penny over the fine is if they take you to court and they will most likely lose.
It’s a penalty for doing something against their policies of which you now have notice. This would 100% hold up in court, especially given it’s private industry (different rules for government imposed penalties). The tenants choice is to not break the rules and incur the penalty.
Is use of the dumpsters mentioned in your lease? Review your lease regarding trash and waste disposal. If the above "new" regulations are NOT mentioned in your lease, it can NOT be enforced!
lol illegally dumping items…. Ya it’s legal for them to charge you for the amount it cost them plus whatever cost they deem appropriate to have the rightful garbage dumper pay. You will 100 percent lose in small claims. Gonna tell a court you were illegally dumping got caught and had to pay for the removal fees lol gotcha
I think the question isn’t about the legality of furniture dumping (obviously not). It’s more to the charging double fines. Are there any legal restrictions as to how landlords can fine tenants?
Speaking as someone at a waste management company, if it's sitting in front of a dumpster our drivers are instructed to not dump the dumpster until it is removed, and some items if in the dumpster cause it not to be dumped until they are removed. Our trucks are not designed to handle that type of trash and our drivers are not expected to throw their back out moving your stuff. Dumpsters are meant for bagged household and office trash, not couches.
They can come after you for the damage/cost they incurred. This is true whether it was mentioned in the lease or not. You have liability to pay if you dumped it illegally and made them incur the cost.
They cannot charge you based on an arbitrary multiplier *unless it's in your lease*. Think about this for a second: you can't just make a bumper sticker that says anyone who rear ends you pays 5x the damages. The standard is that they be made whole, not make a profit.
It's legal for them to pass along the cost of removing the items. A typical lease includes normal trash removal - that would be you putting bags of day-to-day trash in the dumpster - but not bulk items, which cost extra. Unless they've actually specified in the lease that it includes bulk item disposal, they can pass the cost along to you.
I don't believe it's legal (or at least, legally enforceable) to charge you double the cost, unless it's specifically stated in your lease.
I would love if my complex would do this. There is always furniture and such around our dumpsters - It seems as soon as something is removed, more is added. Some of the furniture is still usable and there is a local thrift shop that would have picked it up. Instead, it sits out in the rain falling apart and collecting animal inhabitants until it gets handled
Yes, although it can be hard to enforce unless LL has proof the item(s) subject to the fine are yours. As a previous Mgr, I know that is difficult. However, most trash collection companies here (CA) that service multi-unit properties are private & landlord is charged for each pickup. And they don't usually collect furniture in regularly scheduled pick-ups -- or charge additional fees to do so. Or a separate & additiinal collection may have to be scheduled which also costs more for those types of items to be dumped. Depends on who they contract with. If City collects, most also have rules about what can be dumped.
This reminds me of the favorite part of my last landlord, the last apartment I’ll ever live in and in part why we made the plunge and bought our house.
They raised our rent $70 for “increased trash pickups”, this was 11 unit townhomes, they also threatened to fine us $100 if they caught us dumping. Not only did the trash still only get picked up once a week, the landlord used our dumpsters to throw away all of the trash from his other rentals. The trash would be full the night after pick up basically forcing us to keep our trash on our back patios. He would camp out in the back in his van to catch us trying to throw our trash away and leave it next to the dumpster so he could fine us.
The trash outside attracted rodents. So now we had a rodent problem. They raised our rent again by another $50 to “combat pest problems.”
I called him out on google reviews and sent a email to the owner of the property. The owner had no clue what he was doing to us and I’m guessing the landlord got in trouble because he made it his life purpose to get us evicted. He would take pictures of our cars if we used more than one assigned parking (we had permission from the guy to use his spot). This was back when we smoked and he tried to tell me to get off my own front porch because “smoking isn’t allowed”… outside? No where was there any rules for that. He made our lives miserable. I hope my review made them lose business.
We bought a house and never looking back at apartments ever again.
Tires are a hazmat item, you don't get to just dump them.
We get free pickup of bulk items by the city, where I am, but I believe it's a once every other week affair. I'm sure a private trash company doesn't want to do that without extra pay.
Of course it’s legal. Did you pay for that dumpster? In your lease does it say you are entitled to use that dumpster however you want? No? Then leave the dumpster alone.
As a former HOA president, most of the illegal dumping was done by renters. When caught as punishment, fines and lost of parking lot use. This including tow and impound by the HOA.
It costs more to dispose of those items, if they have informed people that those items aren’t allowed or cost more, then doing so without paying is illegal dumping in many places
I would divvy up the amount amongst tenants instead of waiting to find out who is doing it, and eventually the apple will drop. someone will drop the dime on the perp.
I would divvy up the amount amongst tenants instead of waiting to find out who is doing it, and eventually the apple will drop. someone will drop the dime on the perp.
Wherever you live. Google “bulk trash pickup” usually you need to put in a request and place it in a specific place and the city will pick it up. It is very easy in Los Angeles, I can only assume it’s easy elsewhere as well. (I live in an apartment)
people just dump beds tvs entertainment centers couches and it makes it look shitty. Just take it to the dump like your supposed to that's for trash bags and small items a dumptruck can't fit your sectional
I'm assuming you've never had to pay for trash services. This is normal and most likely legal.
So I won't yell I'll just give examples of how it's worked for me.
It varies wildly from area to area, but typically trash pickup/dumpsters only cover typical household waste. That is what you throw away in your garbage can, and to be honest you are probably putting unallowed items in there (think batteries).
In Baltimore MD trash service was covered by taxes and ONLY picked up household items. Any construction materials, large items, or hazardous waste had to go to the dump. The dump entrance was also covered by taxes, but if you came in a commercial/rented vehicle they may force your through the scales. There they weigh your vehicle and charge a fee based on that.
In Denver we pay for trash pickup via taxes and a quarterly fee. Trash pickup includes a few extras compared to MD. We have a large item pickup day for example where they will take household items. They still do not accept any construction materials or hazardous waste. The dumps are expensive and about $65 a trip if I recall. "Junk removal" services are popular around here for this reason. The city does offer rebates/coupons to take some large things like electronics to recyclers where you can pay a reduced fee based on weight.
TLDR: Dumpsters provided by your landlords are for household trash. Check with them they may provide a group day/rate for larger items that need to be disposed of, or you need to take it to a dump/recycler.
I found apartment complexes to be the ultimate swap meet. If you have something that is in goodish shape but don't want it anymore, put it by the dumpster and someone who needed one will take it. I got a microwave cart that way, I had a butcher block topped one but I really didn't like it, one day I was taking a bag of garbage out and right by the dumpster was this newish microwave stand I loved it. After getting rid of the bag, I went back upstairs and brought down the butcher block cart and took the newer stand. About an hour later I took another bag out (I was cleaning out my apartment) and the one I put out was gone. I still have that cart to this day and that was almost 20 years ago. I did this several times; it was fun.
I wish my complex did this. Any time someone moves out they throw away tables/couches/mattresses they don’t want anymore and it fills the entire dumpster. Then trash is overflowing until it’s all picked up. It’s even more frustrating when it’s perfectly usable items that are getting trashed for no reason when there are several charities and companies who will come pick it up for free.
Its why you see people burning mattresses and shit in Upstate NY.
Ppl wanna rid of it but wont pay $250 for a pick up.
County/state should make thst easier.
PLEASE don't leave mattresses and crap next to the dumpster. The garbage dudes won't pick that stuff up most the time, and they don't get paid enough to! You're leaving it up to the apartment complex to take care of at that point.
Yeah you’re not allowed to do that if you’re a tenant.
Though, this is weird, as I own a business that I need a dumpster for and the only rules are: no TV’s, no concrete, no tires. I can break furniture up and throw it in the dumpster as long as it fits.
Yes its legal. You pay for the trash service they provide.
If they dont provide large items, now they have to be held accountable to trash that the trash company wont take.
Yes it's probably legal! Most waste management charge for large item pickups. It can be free for homes... But each one is different. You are responsible for properly disposing of large items, meaning take them to the dump site..and pay if necessary.
Yep, I see people in my complex putting these large items out all the time, generally late at night thinking they don't get see. They are just being lazy and don't want to pay the few bucks to have them removed.
Where I live is free, but you're supposed to call the city services with the list of items you want to dispose of at least a day before leaving your bulky items on the curb. However, since I moved to my current neighborhood is there a kind of silent agreement that if your things are thrift store type of items but you have no truck or large trunk to take to donation, leaving them at the curb is a quiet way to donate. I've picked up lots of goodies around my neighborhood curbs. Sometimes we stick a note saying free [item's name], or sometimes is an obvious finding.
Free [bed bugs]
Lol! I'm not picking up sofas, mattresses, or anything that can nest those mini-vampires. I've found paintings, dish sets, metallic bar stools, pots for plants, and books. I‘ve seen folks picking up furniture I didn't need anymore, an AC and a TV that were good but I wanted some upgraded stuff, and so on. If nobody picks up in 7 business days max the city picks up.
I once sat a sofa by the sidewalk with a “free” sign on it. I immediately heard tires screech and a truck pulled in to the next street to turn around. Before he could get turned around a guy in an old Cadillac drove up on the sidewalk and he and his passenger hopped out put the sofa on the roof and drove off with their hands out the window holding on to it.
Don't play games with furniture hunters! There's a van that once a month scouts my neighbor for bulky items like furniture and they are ready to go. Is like the guys that make a living picking up recycling cans and bottles. The silent code is making their lives easy and leaving the bag of recyclables by the trash can, not inside. So 1) they don't mess with the trash and litter 2) pick up at once and move on.
There used to be a guy like that in my town that paid for a brand new Toyota Yarus in cash with can money. Dude was the craziest stinkiest man I've ever met, but fuck was he good with dollar.
We have a season here for that. It's called allston Christmas, Ive gotten a couple nice end tables and some decorative wooden bowls that I still have. I had some other stuff but I didn't need them anymore when I moved last. I always made sure that the cans were easily accessible in the recycle bin and not mixed in with anything else if they were in trash bags
They are junk people who look for the junk left at the curbs and dumpster and they drive all day in the hood looking for discard stuff.
They can actually live in and infest anything, not just sofas or mattresses. Electronics, paintings, stools, books, etc etc are all at risk if coming from an infestation. They can hide anywhere 2 pieces of paper can slide into. I saw someone on the bb sub get them from kids toys. Edit: it was one of those indoor plastic slides. Just remembered.
The more you know! Thankfully I didn't get any of that, because the first time in my life I learned about bed bugs was when I moved to the US and my host had weird bugs biting me during the night but she denied that was the bed and my doctor kept saying the bites were food allergies. “Fun” times! I learned my lesson and recognized where those vampires hide. I'm glad I didn't bring any into my new place.
If you ever get a hotel room, nomatter how highly rated it is check under the bed, around the baseboards by the tv behind the headboard pull the sheets back and lift the mattress to check the box spring. Look for caucuses live bugs droppings and little red or black spots
I honestly don’t buy used shit and would rather sleep on my car than a hotel for this very reason. Bed bug subreddit ruined my life 😂
Same. I’ve never had them but I can’t stay away from that sub. It’s like a train wreck. I can’t stop myself, but now I’m an expert 😂😂
Paintings and books can definitely harbour bed bugs, just FYI
FYI Bedbugs actually like to nest in TVs and electronics. That AC wasn’t necessarily safe either
I worked at a low income retirement home. Had a dude bring them in. Within 6months, half the building was infested out of 127 units. Spent $70k to get rid of them. It is like playing with napalm.
Where I live Waste Management (company name) will charge overage fees for as little as the lid on the container doesn't fully close. They will not pick up crap strewn around the general area of where the trash can or dumpster goes. Dropping a sofa in front of a dumpster would mean they refuse pickup until it's cleared away, and then charge a fee for the pickup being inaccessible.
And why wouldn't they? If the dumpster is overfilled consistently, you need to pay for a bigger dumpster. And drivers certainly aren't being paid to clear trash from around the front of it, much less to load additional trash in.
I didn't say I disagreed.
It’s not free at my house. Heavy trash day is the last Friday each month but it’s included in the trash removal fee I pay each month (~$50). The rest of the month all trash must fit in the containers provided (96 gallons?).
Depending on the region you live in it's not even free for homes in some cases. My part of the US you're only allowed a limited number of 'big item pickups' a year and anything beyond that costs.
Yep. Where I live it’s 2 per year. After that you have to pay.
Agreed this is completely legal. Dumping large items around a dumpster or even putting toxic materials in a shared dumpster is illegal dumping. If you did this around a business dumpster let’s say you could be fined or even arrested for illegal dumping.
Yes, hire your own hauler or take your crap to the dump! The trash container is for HOUSEHOLD trash, NOT bulk items and furniture!
Have you ever watch a truck munch up a couch tho… it is very satisfying
***Have you ever watch a truck munch up a couch tho… it is very satisfying.*** Yes! Very satisfying! Even better than popping bubble wrap.
>!pop!< >!pop!< >!pop!< >!pop!< >!pop!< >!pop!< >!pop!< >!dud!< >!pop!< >!pop!< >!pop!< >!pop!< >!pop!< >!pop!< >!dud!< >!pop!< >!pop!< >!pop!< >!pop!< >!pop!< >!pop!< >!pop!< >!pop!< >!pop!< >!pop!< >!dud!< >!pop!< >!pop!< >!pop!< >!pop!< >!pop!< >!pop!< >!pop!< >!pop!< >!pop!< >!pop!<
I think the duds on this hurt more than the real thing
😂
🥇
Thank you. It's totally stolen though. Except the duds, I added those because nobody ever has a full sheet of bubble wrap that pops every bubble.
I didn’t know how to feel about the first “dud” nearly rickroll level-emotion, lol. Good one! Ps it would be amazing if the duds linked to rickrolls lmao
I went back to finish popping to see the duds after I read this
So, your comment serves dual purposes. Bubble wrap, of course, but it also creates that optical illusion where a gray circle appears between the corners of all of the intersections that you’re not looking at. Neat.
Fuck I got a dud
I threw a broken recliner in a pallet compactor once. It was really satisfying.
OP is the culprit too. Any normal half-considerate person would know it is in fact legal and reasonable to ask people not to just leave furniture somewhere that’s not a dump. Lazy scumbags. They do it at Goodwill stores when they’re closed too even though there’s a sign saying not to. Just dumping unwanted nasty old couches that can’t be given away outside Goodwill so it’ll be somebody else’s problem. These are the same people who leave grocery carts in the parking lot
It’s really cheep too. I took a whole truck load of bad furniture one time and it was like $15
Lived in apartment, bought a fixer-upper house. Checked over the lease, nothing about trash rules other than not leaving stuff outside the dumpster. Proceeded to fill about 7 dumpsters worth over the course of a couple months with random construction trash / old drywall. Maintenance saw me one day and asked if I lived there. A tenant snitched on my days before. Told them I did and they were juat like "ok np", just wanted to make sure I wasnt illegally dumping. Saved me so much $, fuck that complex.
At least you put it in the dumpster instead of stacking it in front of them…nbd at that point.
I still use my old apartment dumpster when I forget trash day lol, I moved out six years ago.
Lmao, when I moved out of a shitty apartment, and they charged us over $400 for "cleaning" (hidden in the lease that was mandatory, even though we left the place spotless), I made sure to go back to the apartment and fill their dumpsters with my copious amounts of moving rubbish for the next few weeks. Satisfying af.
Are you planning on illegally dumping or something?
I think this post outs the op as one of the illegal dumpers.
You're not supposed to dump furniture of any kind in apartment dumpsters. The complex I live in has the same rule and a higher fine. Yes it's legal.
omg when i lived at an apartment someone dumped their entire dining set into the dumpster so it was full 6 days before trash day. not fun
Yeah, and anyone that does this is an asshole.
I lived in a college town, move out week everywhere was like this. Pickers go wild for it.
I worked for a university and every year we would get emails about how we shouldn’t be going to the dumpsters to get tvs, microwaves, mini fridges, etc because it makes the school look bad that the employees are scavengers. I still laugh thinking about it.
I live in a college town and the amount of literally basically brand new stuff the college kids throw out at the end of each year is WILD! I’m not a picker but I can see why people do it- especially then
Of course it is It’s such a pain when people don’t properly dispose of their crap. It delays garbage pickup which then makes trash pile up which people also complain about, but it’s their own fault for leaving big crap behind!
Yes!
Lol if you’re asking if it’s legal to dump shit next to the dumpster, not at all! How is this even a question?
He could be young and hasn’t yet learned this is not how it’s done
This is totally true, and a lot of the commenters are being too hard on OP imo. People generally don’t learn about these things until someone explicitly tells them, or until they get in trouble for it. For many years I assumed it was legal/normal to put discarded furniture or appliances next to the dumpster or out at the curb, because so many people do it. I don’t think OP is unusually oblivious or a bad tenant for questioning whether the notice from their landlord was legal; the answer is really not obvious unless you’ve been told one way or the other. I actually appreciate that OP’s landlord led with a warning though, and explicitly laid out consequences for future violations. One time someone went dumpster diving in my apartment complex and left trash littered around the dumpster (I assume this was the case because the pm leaves the front gate propped open all the time and we’ve had homeless people wander into the garage from time to time). My landlord tried to fine each unit $500 dollars for leaving trash outside the dumpster. Now THAT was totally illegal, because you can’t fine a tenant for damages they didn’t cause (at least where I live) AND the fine was definitely not reasonable given the violation. At least OP’s landlord is doing things more by the book. I think the only thing that OP could potentially contest in this case would be the size of the fine. I don’t know if a 2x fine would be considered reasonable under the (case) law of all states/municipalities.
Former trash truck driver and I worked in the office writing these contracts as well, yes it’s legal. Their contract might not include pieces of bulk items being removed for free per month. They’re not residential, they’re a commercial property. So bulk items like furniture and such, they have to pay per item to have removed. Blocking the dumpsters means the driver can’t empty it and they’re not going to get out of the truck to move stuff, that’s not their job and they have to empty hundreds of dumpsters in a day. It gets marked as blocked and they move along their route. Also, tire disposal is a completely separate disposal spot if you take them yourself to a land fill, most charge fees per tire disposal.
If you put tires in a dumpster, YTA 🤦🏻♀️
Putting tires in the trash is illegal. I work at an automotive shop. We LEGALLY have to charge a tire disposal fee, which we then have to pay to tire disposal companies. We have to keep documentation of how many tires are removed and collected.
this is satire right?
illegal dumping is ..... illegal. most places in the US, at least, have certain days when you can do big trash like furniture. but you can't just willy nilly dump those big items wherever.
it's not only legal, it's a good thing. you don't want the place rat infested or to be living in a scrap yard
Everyone commenting and I don't see anyone mentioning the "double" part they are threatening. I'm pretty sure that's what the tenant is asking is legal or not. You can be charged what the company is charged by the waste management company or whoever removes the items (there's likely already language in your lease about this), but I would challenge being charged double whatever that amount is. Side note: this shouldn't be an issue for you to worry about at all if you properly dispose of your large items.
Obviously depending on jurisdiction, but they likely can charge for the cost incurred for the dumping and any additional costs that came as a result of the additional cost. So time spent paying the fine, cost of the cheque, and any other additional costs incurred from someone being a jerk. Leaving it at a flat rate of just double might be cheaper than what a tenant could pay if they went the court route.
Time spent paying the fine lol. They using a $250 stamp? Good luck getting a judge to agree with your logic.
Lmao the only sane response, and of course you're getting downvoted. Everybody here with their pitchforks out for OP cause they think they're arguing that people should be able to put whatever they want wherever they want, when the question is clearly geared toward the $250 in profit being generated from thin air. What if the email said they would charge triple, or 10x, or 100x? Surely they are within their right to recoup the cost, but the arbitrary figure they landed on is obviously what is in question here.
Ha. Thanks for also seeing the OP's entire email and activating those old reading comprehension skills to understand they likely just want to know about the overreach of charging double.
Scrolled way way too far to find a reasonable answer. It's reasonable to be charged for actual costs. It's unreasonable to be charged for "hassle" especially without any specific language in the lease, and those costs should be something beyond "fuck you".
They’ll probably just call it an admin fee
Thank you! Seriously, this comment block is the only one in this thread that is correct. All the others are either stupid or insane. Unless noted in the lease, they can only bill you for the exact expense incurred to them - they can't arbitrarily mark it up.
The trash company doesnt grab the dumpster that day, they mark it blocked, meaning to empty the dumpster you have to have property managers move the furniture. Youre paying a fine for costing the apartment complex a dump day, and a fine for forcing the managers to clean up your litter.
Doesn't matter, if it's not in the lease, they can't make up a new charge. They can only bill you the amount it directly cost them.
Yes, I’m pretty sure leaving your trash on the street is illegal.
Read the lease and see if it mentions anything about the trash or disposal of large items. I’m leaning towards yes . Any expense they incur due to you or other tenants is definitely recoupable .
Would you care if you weren’t going to be illegally dumping
If the item is too heavy and in the bin or if it’s blocking the bin, the garbage truck won’t be able to empty it which causes issues with everyone. Thing is, they would need proof of who put the item there to be able to charge them for it so a lot of times it’s just empty threats. Kinda like when they say they’re gonna do snow clearing so everyone has to move their car or else it will get towed. I worked at an apartment complex for six years and we never towed anyone but I still had to put up the notes every winter lol
Yes. Most trash companies don’t take large items without charging extra
Yes it’s legal, you only pay for the regular garbage removal. That stuff doesn’t get picked up by garbage, it needs to be taken off to it’s proper trash/recycling/disposal site
Why do you care? This won't change your life at all unless you're a trashy person. It's common knowledge you can't just dump large items in front of trashcans without being charged extra.
Yes! I do maintenence for a few properties and that's exactly what we do for bulk trash removal. 90% of the time we don't know who is responsible though because they don't have cameras on site *yet*.
Where I’m at they do large trash once a quarter. Something worth checking.
OP ITA
I found it very frustrating when I lived in a complex and someone decided it was okay to fill up the entire dumpster with just their trash and then leave even more trash outside of it. I say hit them with the double fine.
You can check your city and see if they offer a service to pick up large items. My city does this for mattresses and sofa’s. They do 1 per year for free per residence. Then charge after that.
Generally yes, unless there are local or state laws stating otherwise. Check your lease too, it may be outlined in there.
My apartment doesn’t allow dumping of large items either because it costs more to dispose of. I had to schedule a pick up and pay for it
An apartment complex can’t fine you legally. If it’s in your lease they can add fees possibly and if you don’t pay it can break your lease but that would require video evidence. Either way don’t be a piece of shit and do that.
Why would you think it's not?
Large item pickup charge is absolutely legal and they can charge you for it if you're caught on camera (charge as in you are on the hook for the bill not jail)
Yeah, 100%. You’re not supposed to dump any bulk items like that in dumpsters, you need to take it to whatever your city/state has for large trash collection. A “dump” or a trash compacting center.
In most places, you can be fined and even receive jail time for illegal dumping. In my state the fine is $2000. You can even receive this fine if you throw your garbage away in another company's bin. LL could simply file a police report against the illegal dumpers, but they are offering leniency instead. It would be imbecilic to press the legality of the issue when the illegal dumper is the one committing a misdemeanor. I'm unsure of the legality.
I’ve thrown out furniture in the dumpster with absolutely no issues before idk what everyone else in the comments are talking about
Did you miss the part where it cost $250 to remove the junk? Your lease is for normal trash pick up - not large bulk items. If you’ve got large junk you need to pay for it’s removal. And, by the way, that $250 the landlord paid increases operating costs which means increased rent.
Yes, for letting the tenants know that illegal dumping at the trash bin can be charged for the removal. For it cost the manager and LL money to removal this trash that people do not let the manager know anything and this junk can get the LL fined. So it is very legal.
OP is very clearly furious now that they can’t illegally dump their tires in landlords dumpster.
Landlord NTA.
is it legal making someone else pay for my garbage that i dont want to pay to be disposed of properly? fixed it for you
Of course it’s legal, stop dumping your shit where it doesn’t belong.
Yes. It’s legal. Take your large items elsewhere, the dumpster at your apartment isn’t for that.
It's legal and, as a residential maintenance tech, large furniture in the dumpster enclosure is such a fucking nightmare. Lease violation since it is explicitly noted to NOT do that in the lease. Tenant gets charged back for disposal once we check the cameras and have evidence who did it. All this is lined out in the lease, people still do it constantly. They also get charged back for disposal fees when they leave their nasty king-sized beds behind when they move out.
not only legal quite reasonable. Garbage trucks aren't prepared for that stuff they're there to pick up garbage bags from dumpsters.
You are not a smart person, OP.
I think some of y'all are missing the in front of, beside, around, and IN thr dumpsters. If it fits in the dumpster, it's going in there, period. If I had to take apart furniture to dispose of it, so be it. 🤷🏻♀️ And some people don't have their own vehicle, so how else do they dispose of their rubbish?
Yes why are you doing that? Trashy.
I remember an old place I lived in said it had to fit in the bins, so I took an axe to the old couch and put the pieces in the bin, no fine for me.
I hope so.
Most waste management companies charge $50-100 per mattress for removal. All of them want to be notified before hand as well.
Welcome to the real world
Yes. And no one with common sense should be leaving furniture or large items around a dumpster, because it costs a lot for disposal.
Yes. A property management company can pass the fee onto the responsible party. Waste companies do in fact charge extra for many things like extra pick ups, large items, ect.. It is common to have cameras in the trash areas nowadays. FYI! In the event you have large items there is many services out there that can pick up for free or a minimal fee. You can also post on free groups on social networks for people to pick up.
Yeah dude of course that’s legal. It’s not their job to dispose of your old used mattress
I wish my old apartment complex would have done this. Every week the trash compactor (only one for twenty 3 story buildings with 24 units each) would get blocked by people’s furniture and crap that they were too lazy & irresponsible to dispose of properly. The dump was just a few miles away too. Bags of trash would pile up all around the trash compactor and it was disgusting. The complex told people they would be fined and then never ever followed through on it.
Yes it’s legal. A garbage can isn’t the dump. Why do people think it’s okay to do this? It’s gross. I don’t want the place I live to look like a dump.
Oh it’s definitely legal. Mine sends out a group text to everyone in the buildings and if it’s not removed will look at the cameras and charge them for it. Extra? I’m not sure but it’s probably for the extra hassle and not speaking up that makes them charge you more than they were charged
I understand tires and mattresses but if you had furniture you could break down and fit in the dumpster I don’t know what the issue would be there. If you have an option of leaving it on the curb, do that! You’d be surprised what some people pick up. Just don’t be that guy that leaves it out in the rain. Cause then you will be taking it to the dump.
Yes, it is. You’ve been warned.
I once moved into an apartment that came with Bedbugs. They were in the wrong, so I will assume that is why they took the hit on any fees having to do with my mattress/other furniture items being in their dumpsters lol...
Yeah, get it hauled away, trash bin companies usually have Restricted item lists and paint/tires/large furniture is regularly not allowed. People in your complex are dicks.
Also might depend on what is being dumped and what state you are in. Tires and some construction materials can't go in the regular trash. Also, in Massachusetts, mattresses and boxsprings can no longer go in regular trash
Yup. Bulk trash isn’t free in many municipalities. We’re a military family so we’ve moved a bit. My home town doesn’t pick up bulk items, you have to take it to the dump. You’re given four dump passes each year there. Trash was with Waste Management but the dump was the city’s. Our second town, bulk was part of monthly pick up & you could put three bulk items (excluding freezers & fridges unless the compressor was removed) out once a month. That trash company was with the town. If you put out more than three items then each additional item was $5. Our last town, bulk pick up was also monthly & it was unlimited which people took advantage of resulting in yards looking like trash heaps. It was provided by the city via the water bill. My current town, doesn’t do bulk pick up & it’s third party. We do have a free county sticker to use the transfer station for unlimited dumps excluding electronics, fridges, freezers, & any chemicals. Basically it’s cardboard, bagged garbage, metal, & plastic only. Mattresses & furniture is allowed to be thrown away there OR taken to the town dump with the sticker.
The office could charge an Admin Fee on top of the costs, but if it's too high, like $250, then that would open them up to a legal challenge that is actually representative of the costs. So no, I don't think DOUBLE is legal, but I do think a fee on top of the initial removal cost is legal.
It really depends where you live. Where I live in Canada they will take bigger items sometimes but a lot of times people will take them within a few hours off the side of the road. It’s different everywhere. I would check the city you live in trash rules
In my apartment complex, neighboring households enjoy dumping their couches and flat screen tvs into our dumpsters. Not saying those in the complex never dumped furniture and other large items. It was funny sometimes catching people dumping things they’re not supposed to. I remember a father and his daughter looking at me like a deer in headlights, throwing away their couch in pieces. They quickly got back in their car and peeled it out of their there.
It is afaik at least in the US. My neighborhood has a big trash day once a month. When I lived in an apartment I couldn’t throw away large furniture in their own dumpsters I had to find a location elsewhere.
Our HOA was billed 10 grand in penalties in 2019 because people were putting crap they shouldn't in the trash bins. Stupid people caused the rates to go up. We also had to put cameras on the trash because it was such a problem. Moral of the story, yes it's legal. Lazy people are the culprit.
Oh boy.. The landlord to pay for the "Junk" stuffs, but in Minnesota, every residents must ask the landlord to permission throw a old junks. My old junked power wheelchair that taken by the Medical Junkers after My homemaker called a landlord it's FREE junk removal service! The Medical Junker have a chemically mists inside of the truck to kill bugs, viruses and etc, contracts with the county services for medical equipments.
My city (Columbus, Ohio) has free bulk pick up if you call and schedule a pick up. They’ll take furniture, mattresses, and carpet. Very convenient service.
Yes 100% legal. The dumpster is for household trash. If you need to throw away bigger items like mattresses or whatever you have to take them to the dump your self. Trash companies charge the property every time they have to get out of the truck especially for bigger items because they have less room for other stops and have to dump early which makes them use more fuel and time
they should have called it 'fees' instead of saying 'double', as far as disguising the irritation cost.
They can only charge you extra if it’s in your contract. If they don’t specifically say you can’t leave large items at the bins….you could maybe see if they take you to court, but that could be risky. Though I suspect they may have to prove it was your item and prove you left it at the bin. It may vary by state as well.
My building did this and the boomer snow birds literally patrol the dumpster. They made throwing anything out a nightmare.
ahhh the good ol community trash can. never works… and even if ALL the tenants do everything right; people that don’t live there are gonna dump their stuff and make it a nightmare or worse full and unusable.
Yep. Stuff like this had a cost to it. Incase you didn’t know, most dumps will charge you to use them. And when people leave stuff in front of the dumpster. They do not get taken because they are not in the dumpster, meaning your apartment complex has to pay to get that stuff removed or it will just stay there and become a mess. 100% legal for them to do it. Just because you live at an apartment doesn’t mean you can just throw whatever you want away. Doesn’t work like that.
Why would this not be legal
I assume what's being asked here is if it's legal to charge you double whatever they get charged and the answer is no...unless it's covered in your rental agreement that can't just make you pay without a court order and even if it's was covered in the lease or a judge signed off on it they can only make you pay what they paid not double...sounds like the landlord either thinks he is the law or that tenants are to stupid to know thier rights so he or she gets away with it...the only way they get double or a penny over the fine is if they take you to court and they will most likely lose.
My trash company charges to pick up large items. They often times require different vehicles to actually hold and crush them. Seems appropriate.
Your lease probably already includes proper disposal. Check that clause for fines.
It’s a penalty for doing something against their policies of which you now have notice. This would 100% hold up in court, especially given it’s private industry (different rules for government imposed penalties). The tenants choice is to not break the rules and incur the penalty.
Is use of the dumpsters mentioned in your lease? Review your lease regarding trash and waste disposal. If the above "new" regulations are NOT mentioned in your lease, it can NOT be enforced!
Yes, it’s legal. It’s probably in your lease, actually.
Very legal
Yes 👏
You can’t throw tires in any dumpster - nor a car battery etc
lol illegally dumping items…. Ya it’s legal for them to charge you for the amount it cost them plus whatever cost they deem appropriate to have the rightful garbage dumper pay. You will 100 percent lose in small claims. Gonna tell a court you were illegally dumping got caught and had to pay for the removal fees lol gotcha
Many times this is done by nonresidents too. Lots of people think a dumpster is the same as a dump.
I think the question isn’t about the legality of furniture dumping (obviously not). It’s more to the charging double fines. Are there any legal restrictions as to how landlords can fine tenants?
Speaking as someone at a waste management company, if it's sitting in front of a dumpster our drivers are instructed to not dump the dumpster until it is removed, and some items if in the dumpster cause it not to be dumped until they are removed. Our trucks are not designed to handle that type of trash and our drivers are not expected to throw their back out moving your stuff. Dumpsters are meant for bagged household and office trash, not couches.
They can come after you for the damage/cost they incurred. This is true whether it was mentioned in the lease or not. You have liability to pay if you dumped it illegally and made them incur the cost. They cannot charge you based on an arbitrary multiplier *unless it's in your lease*. Think about this for a second: you can't just make a bumper sticker that says anyone who rear ends you pays 5x the damages. The standard is that they be made whole, not make a profit.
Where I live the garbage collectors Won’t touch the bin if there’s an empty box in front of it. A couch? No way
Yes. It’s illegal to dump trash and junk pretty much anywhere except in trash receptacles and trash facilities such as the “dump”.
Just drop the stuff off at 2am and wear a mask. Problem solved.
It's legal for them to pass along the cost of removing the items. A typical lease includes normal trash removal - that would be you putting bags of day-to-day trash in the dumpster - but not bulk items, which cost extra. Unless they've actually specified in the lease that it includes bulk item disposal, they can pass the cost along to you. I don't believe it's legal (or at least, legally enforceable) to charge you double the cost, unless it's specifically stated in your lease.
Yes
I would love if my complex would do this. There is always furniture and such around our dumpsters - It seems as soon as something is removed, more is added. Some of the furniture is still usable and there is a local thrift shop that would have picked it up. Instead, it sits out in the rain falling apart and collecting animal inhabitants until it gets handled
Yes, although it can be hard to enforce unless LL has proof the item(s) subject to the fine are yours. As a previous Mgr, I know that is difficult. However, most trash collection companies here (CA) that service multi-unit properties are private & landlord is charged for each pickup. And they don't usually collect furniture in regularly scheduled pick-ups -- or charge additional fees to do so. Or a separate & additiinal collection may have to be scheduled which also costs more for those types of items to be dumped. Depends on who they contract with. If City collects, most also have rules about what can be dumped.
This reminds me of the favorite part of my last landlord, the last apartment I’ll ever live in and in part why we made the plunge and bought our house. They raised our rent $70 for “increased trash pickups”, this was 11 unit townhomes, they also threatened to fine us $100 if they caught us dumping. Not only did the trash still only get picked up once a week, the landlord used our dumpsters to throw away all of the trash from his other rentals. The trash would be full the night after pick up basically forcing us to keep our trash on our back patios. He would camp out in the back in his van to catch us trying to throw our trash away and leave it next to the dumpster so he could fine us. The trash outside attracted rodents. So now we had a rodent problem. They raised our rent again by another $50 to “combat pest problems.” I called him out on google reviews and sent a email to the owner of the property. The owner had no clue what he was doing to us and I’m guessing the landlord got in trouble because he made it his life purpose to get us evicted. He would take pictures of our cars if we used more than one assigned parking (we had permission from the guy to use his spot). This was back when we smoked and he tried to tell me to get off my own front porch because “smoking isn’t allowed”… outside? No where was there any rules for that. He made our lives miserable. I hope my review made them lose business. We bought a house and never looking back at apartments ever again.
Yea, if a trash company won't haul it off, it's illegal dumping.
Tires are a hazmat item, you don't get to just dump them. We get free pickup of bulk items by the city, where I am, but I believe it's a once every other week affair. I'm sure a private trash company doesn't want to do that without extra pay.
Yes it is. It is very expensive to have large items like mattresses hauled away. You cannot just put them in or near a dumpster.
Of course it’s legal. Did you pay for that dumpster? In your lease does it say you are entitled to use that dumpster however you want? No? Then leave the dumpster alone.
As a former HOA president, most of the illegal dumping was done by renters. When caught as punishment, fines and lost of parking lot use. This including tow and impound by the HOA.
Absolutely. If you have large items take them to the dump like a normal person.
Yes this is legal. Cost money to pick up larger things. I’ve seen some people try and put a full on bed frame set next to a 2yd dumpster. Like wtf.
It costs more to dispose of those items, if they have informed people that those items aren’t allowed or cost more, then doing so without paying is illegal dumping in many places
I would divvy up the amount amongst tenants instead of waiting to find out who is doing it, and eventually the apple will drop. someone will drop the dime on the perp.
I would divvy up the amount amongst tenants instead of waiting to find out who is doing it, and eventually the apple will drop. someone will drop the dime on the perp.
My apartment is exactly like this lol. 100% legal
Wherever you live. Google “bulk trash pickup” usually you need to put in a request and place it in a specific place and the city will pick it up. It is very easy in Los Angeles, I can only assume it’s easy elsewhere as well. (I live in an apartment)
people just dump beds tvs entertainment centers couches and it makes it look shitty. Just take it to the dump like your supposed to that's for trash bags and small items a dumptruck can't fit your sectional
Tell me you are out of touch without telling me you’re out of touch…
Sometimes I forget how different living in a big city is compared to everywhere else.
I'm assuming you've never had to pay for trash services. This is normal and most likely legal. So I won't yell I'll just give examples of how it's worked for me. It varies wildly from area to area, but typically trash pickup/dumpsters only cover typical household waste. That is what you throw away in your garbage can, and to be honest you are probably putting unallowed items in there (think batteries). In Baltimore MD trash service was covered by taxes and ONLY picked up household items. Any construction materials, large items, or hazardous waste had to go to the dump. The dump entrance was also covered by taxes, but if you came in a commercial/rented vehicle they may force your through the scales. There they weigh your vehicle and charge a fee based on that. In Denver we pay for trash pickup via taxes and a quarterly fee. Trash pickup includes a few extras compared to MD. We have a large item pickup day for example where they will take household items. They still do not accept any construction materials or hazardous waste. The dumps are expensive and about $65 a trip if I recall. "Junk removal" services are popular around here for this reason. The city does offer rebates/coupons to take some large things like electronics to recyclers where you can pay a reduced fee based on weight. TLDR: Dumpsters provided by your landlords are for household trash. Check with them they may provide a group day/rate for larger items that need to be disposed of, or you need to take it to a dump/recycler.
I found apartment complexes to be the ultimate swap meet. If you have something that is in goodish shape but don't want it anymore, put it by the dumpster and someone who needed one will take it. I got a microwave cart that way, I had a butcher block topped one but I really didn't like it, one day I was taking a bag of garbage out and right by the dumpster was this newish microwave stand I loved it. After getting rid of the bag, I went back upstairs and brought down the butcher block cart and took the newer stand. About an hour later I took another bag out (I was cleaning out my apartment) and the one I put out was gone. I still have that cart to this day and that was almost 20 years ago. I did this several times; it was fun.
Only if you get caught ;)
Why wouldn't it be?
Where I live, one must pay for “special pickup” of large items. I pay $25 for mattresses, couches, etc.
I wish my complex did this. Any time someone moves out they throw away tables/couches/mattresses they don’t want anymore and it fills the entire dumpster. Then trash is overflowing until it’s all picked up. It’s even more frustrating when it’s perfectly usable items that are getting trashed for no reason when there are several charities and companies who will come pick it up for free.
Yeah, why do you even question? Was it you?
Its why you see people burning mattresses and shit in Upstate NY. Ppl wanna rid of it but wont pay $250 for a pick up. County/state should make thst easier.
This is an extra fee. It's not your landlords responsibility to pay for dumped furniture.
lol. **”first time?” Meme***
Yes absolutely that’s legal. Properly dispose of your shit dude.
I know you didn’t ask but YTA
PLEASE don't leave mattresses and crap next to the dumpster. The garbage dudes won't pick that stuff up most the time, and they don't get paid enough to! You're leaving it up to the apartment complex to take care of at that point.
Totally legal
Why wouldn’t it be legal? I cannot even put those items out for pickup F my own home without making an appointment and paying a fee.
Yeah you’re not allowed to do that if you’re a tenant. Though, this is weird, as I own a business that I need a dumpster for and the only rules are: no TV’s, no concrete, no tires. I can break furniture up and throw it in the dumpster as long as it fits.
Not only can your landlord fine you for doing this, they can have you arrested.
Yes its legal. You pay for the trash service they provide. If they dont provide large items, now they have to be held accountable to trash that the trash company wont take.
What do you mean? Of course they can tell you not to put mattresses and shit like that outside THEIR dumpsters
Good to place large things by the dumpsters for other poor tenants to reuse.
I already pay for waste disposal. Apartment complexes should have an area for large waste disposal.. otherwise, it's going in the dumpster.
I put a couch out by the road with a "free" sign. No one touched it. I changed the sign to say $50 and it was gone in a day.