Bins are always an issue, esp if you have a range of folks who don’t care or are not aware of local uses. We always have overseas kids unaware of what each colour bin is purposed for. And then when they leave they tend not to be aware of the limits acceptable and don’t know about using a local tip or how they’d even get there or what that may cost. They place stuff there, it disappears, so what’s the problem? Rinse and repeat.

Even if you know the culprit its usually best to send a notice (repeated as regularly as required) to all units saying the same thing, that way you aren’t seen as going hard on anyone particular. And if folks know, and an offender is aware in advance it allows you to remove inappropriate stuff like furniture and remove it back to where it came/place it in/outside their garage which will let them know they need find another avenue.

As for sorting recyclables into the correct bins, good luck with that and you should do it yourself should you want but you can’t really force anyone to do so.

Even in the absence of a specific bylaw, you probably have a general one about not interfering with reasonable use and enjoyment of the common property. Leaving rubbish that cannot be easily disposed can easily be argued to detract from the enjoyment of the common property by other members of the corporation. 

I would expect that most jurisdictions hold the owner and a tenant to be separately and jointly responsible for breaches of the bylaws/rules/articles. 

An obligation or responsibility of a past owner of a unit is inherited by the new owner of the unit. If levies are owed, the new owner is liable for them, for example.

In the case of the old owner leaving stuff behind on the common property, it is not fair but probably the only option is for the OC to dispose of the rubbish and wear the cost. 

@Boronia said:
My understanding is that in NSW, at least, usually any outstanding or pre-paid service fees are pro-rataed between the buyer and seller at the time of settlement. Any outstanding levies would be deducted from the sale price, and paid to the SC (or other service provider)  or the buyer; levies pre-paid beyond the settlement date would be credited to the buyer.  

Yes. That is how it should be done. However, the obligations associated with the unit are inherited by the new owner and it is up to the new owner to try to recover costs from the old owner if something went wrong. 

When we bought our unit, something did go wrong. The previous owner owed several thousand dollars in both unpaid levies and ACT govt. rates. The correct amounts had been deducted by our conveyancing lawyer from the sale price. The balance had been paid to the previous owner. Title had been transferred to us. The deducted amounts were sitting in the lawyer’s trust account and cheques to pay those amounts to the ACT govt. and our OC were made out and attached to the file with a paperclip. Then, just before the cheques would have been mailed, the ACT law society froze the lawyers trust account while it resolved some alleged poor practice by our lawyer. It had nothing to do with our mundane matter and I don’t know what the outcome for our lawyer was.

What it did mean was that we were responsible for several thousand dollars of debt associated with the unit and facing demands for payments. We were unequivocally responsible to pay and all we could do was plead for leniency and patience since we could not raise that sort of money at the time. After some months, the ACT law society had done what ever it had to do and the money was released and the payments were made. We had been worried for a while there!