Flat Chat Strata Forum Common Property Current Page

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  • #8709

    Hi Flat Chat Community! Long time lurker 1st time poster… I like in a block of 12 units, with shared rubbish bins. These are not numbered, so all the residents/tenants share them. Apart from the usual feral people that think they don’t need put some items in bins, or happy to leave bins overflowing – I am wondering what solutions others have had in encouraging other residents/tenants to take the rubbish bins out on the odd occasion. I am the sucker who took them out once, and now have an expectation that they will appear on the side of the road every Monday night. I do have a co-hort that will take them in, but 2/12 looking after other peoples rubbish is starting to wear thin…. 

    I have considered an open letter to all residents/tenants, and am about to post a sign near the bin area, but don’t want to sound rude as I am sure this will be more of a deterrent than encouragement.

    I was wondering if any others have been in a similar situation and can maybe assist with suggesting some wording or course of action to try and encourage others to pull their weight.

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
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  • #17922
    excathedra
    Flatchatter

      See my post under “rubbish disposal initiative”.

      Slobs happen.

      #17927
      scotlandx
      Strataguru

        Yes there are slobs everywhere and in a community situation that slobbiness is only magnified.

        There is no reason why you should be taking the bins out, unless you want to enter into an agreement to be paid by the OC for doing that service.  There is no way you will get the other residents to agree to take the bins out, and even if they did, they wouldn’t.  In terms of tenants there is nothing requiring them to take bins out, they are paying rent and in a strata I think it is reasonable to expect that that sort of thing would be taken care of, just as cleaning the common areas would be.

        The simple answer is to employ someone to do it.  That is what we do, and the person who does it also washes the bins out, because smelly bins are horrible.  There are lots of people around who do this sort of thing, just do an internet search or ask your strata manager. 

        #17928
        struggler
        Flatchatter

          Had similar problem where the poor suckers on the EC, including myself, we’re left to put the bins out and bring them in each week. And as someone else did it, the other residents saw no need to actually place their rubbish into the bins, next to was enough because someone else did the bins. Nor did residents feel the need to wrap their rubbish because someone else did the bins. So we started up a bin roster. Each week a resident was responsible for taking the bins out and bringing them in. They could swap between themselves if their due date was not convenient. A reminder was left the day before for the resident due for duty that week. In our bylaws taken from the model bylaws said something like residents are responsible for the proper disposal of their waste and that bins had to be placed on the street. It didn’t say only one bin!
          This system worked well with only a few people forgetting their bin night ( they were reassigned the bin night of the person who did it for them which was of course a member of the EC).

          But now we pay someone for this work. And now the rubbish is being left and not being wrapped correctly. Because it is for someone else to do.

          #17929

          Thanks all for the feedback – I did read these forums and understand this is a fairly common situation to be in. I might look into having someone paid to do it as suggested. I don’t think a roster would work in my situation… as mentioned most residents are tenants, and as scotlandx mentioned – a tenant is not going to be bothered with this kind of thing…

          thanks again.

          #17930
          Jimmy-T
          Keymaster

            The good thing about paying someone to do it is that everybody contributes through their levies, which means tenants are also indirectly paying for it. The issue of freestyle dumpers is another matter entirely.

            The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
            #17940
            imported_dech
            Blocked

                  When our Strata (12 units) had it’s first meeting one of the first questions to the Strata Mgr. was about organizing a “bins roster”; the mgr. strongly suggested that with a mostly tenanted block that this would be dysfunctional.

              We hired a resident to do the cleaning and take the bins in and out, after many years the then investor infested EC altered this to specify a $10 per week fee for the bins and after a couple of years instituted a roster ostensibly to save the sixty odd after tax cents per week per unit. This resulted in many weeks with no bins taken out and more often days before they came back in and no cleaning except occasional rain and sun. The roster seems to be merely a concept from the EC delivered on official looking Strata Mgr. letterheads and probably has no legal basis but some tenants replied agreeing to do so and at least one has it on their lease. The more substantial tenants have all moved out leaving a semi- compliant lot including the types who apparently can’t comprehend putting their rubbish into other than the first bin reached – even where obviously overfull.
              The EC has also stopped internal cleaning e.g. stairways, entrance. The council are well aware of the situation but would only send a letter where things were affecting neighbouring blocks e.g. rats but usually someone takes the bins out once a certain level of filth is reached. Owing to the central location units are tenanted quickly and sales are very uncommon so this is probably an exemplar of the ugly face of capitalism and a case study in support of minimum standards and owner residents having extra voting power.

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