Council Waste Charges

hi,
I am a tennant in an apartment - by the ammount of letters addressed to old tennants we keep getting, there must have been quite a throughput of tennants in the past.

I opened a letter by accident a few days ago - it is a bill for Waste Charges addressed to previous tennants. However, it mustn't have been paid in quite a while as the balance forward is 265.29 (while our portion of the bill is only 49)..

Obviously I'm not going to pay someone else's bills - what should I do ? Send it onto the Landlord ? Do Landlords generally pay this ? Is it his responsibility to chase down the outstanding balance ?

Thanks for any advice people can give me on the above matter..
m.

Return all post addressed to previous tenants to the sender (even those without a return address). It is an offence under the Postal and Telecommunications Services Act 1983 to do otherwise. Contact the council and ask for a new account to be set up under your name. As you said, you're not responsible for previous tenants unpaid bills.

Waste charges are usually payable by tenants, unless otherwise agreed with the landlord or unless the property management company takes responsibility for waste. However, it is very obviously not your responsibility to pay the previous tenants' bill. I suggest contacting the relevant local authority, providing details of when you moved in, and asking that they bill you for the waste charges incurred since - and remember, you can get tax relief on the charges.

Thanks for the replies and the good advice.