Bin Charges for rented property - Pay by Weight in Galway

Hi,

I have a rented house in Galway for which I have always paid the bin charges. To date these were fixed and could be offset as an expense for tax purposes. The city council have now introduced a pay by weight scheme, whereby householders will be charged on the weight of the waste they dispose. As a landlord am I obliged to pay for this or is it fair to ask the tenants to pay from now on (given that I will have no control on the amount of waste they dispose).

Thanks in advance

Probably the fairest way to do it would be to tell them that you will pay the charges, up to the current fixed rate amount, and everything above that is for them.

I know the company I use in Clare gives an allowance of 400 kg per 6 months, and charges/debits you per kg over/under. Perhaps you can suggest that they pay any overrun. The 400 kg is for non-recyclable material only, the recyclables are included "free" in service charge.

Note that in my case, the price per kg is 10c. That means that if I put out no rubbish for 6 months I will only be refunded Eur 40 from the Eur 400, so most is fixed cost. If yours is in same ball park, there should not be a huge overrun financially, unless there are 10 of them in the house.

It depends on what your lease says.
If in your lease you are responsible for waste charges - you have to pay.

You are a very nice landord to be paying anything towards the refuse charges. Any place I have rented required the tenant to pay their own charges.

Hi Bloodycold,

As a Galwegian, though an owner not a renter, I have just switched to the other bin co ( not sure if I can mention names )

This other company have an all in fixed charge if you desire. I had been loyal sticking to my local council but they cheesed me off big time by repeatedly billing me for my last house, which I sold over a year ago. My solr had notified them 3 times of my ceasing to be owner of the other house but they won't believe & threaten me with legal proceedings & discontinuing my bin service !

Hi Perplexed,

Yes I know the other company you have mentioned. I believe there are a lot of people switching from the council to this company. I am going to investigate it myself but presume there are charges to change - ie. for the council to take away bins and other company to give me new bins.

The reason I have paid the refuse charges to date is because it was a fixed price and I could offset it against tax as an expense on the property. Maybe switching to the company is the only way I can control this expense as a fixed amount.

Thanks

Don't see why there should be a problem mentioning the City Bin Co. here — I switched myself last month for much the same reason as bloodycold.

No charges for changing. They even give you a pre-typed & stamped addressed envelope in the welcome pack to send to the council.

If you have been using the services of the City Council since Jan 15th then you may be liable for some charge, but otherwise I don't see any probs.