Landlord adding a refuse charge in apartment complex

nothing

Finally got a response from the agent:

Apologies for the delay in response, there is no specific notice period for applying a refuse charge. With rent increases etc. there is certain notice periods. Having access to refuse disposal is a requirement, it does not state anywhere however that landlords are required to pay for this. It was a charge the landlord shouldn’t have been paying all along, all tenancies even those in local authority housing pay for their own refuse. I understand it’s a change, and you may feel it’s expensive however it is five euro weekly, to have access to both refuse & recycling. I really do not think you will get better quotes anywhere else, I say this as we are constantly searching the market for the best deals etc. and €5.00 a week for a tenant is excellent.



We cannot charge each tenancy differently, it is a set fee for each apartment regardless of the number of occupants.



If you want to give me a call to discuss, please do.

I think I now need to do some heavy lifting and research waste disposal prices around so that I can refute the cost. (In my email I referred to it as €240 a year, here they note it's €5 a week which I find very patronising).

I also feel I should argue against the set fee per apartment, given that this is a) a new charge and b) I doubt that's how they are charged.

They did not at all respond to my request for a bill or breakdown and brushed off the notice period.

Thanks for all the advice so far, any more in light of this is welcome!

intheclouds

Have you contacted PRTB about this?

Id be asking them about it before replying tbh.

How much it is is irrelevant if a landlord cannot add extra charges to a tenancy under tenancy law.

nothing

An update on this. I contacted RTB who told me to contact Threshold.

Threshold are of the opinion that a precedent was set of the refuse being included in the rent and that I'm not obliged to pay extra now. There's been a bit of back and forth with myself and the agent this week about it, and I've followed the advice I got from Threshold.

The agent had sent a reminder letter which stated that access to the bins would be removed if non payment continued, threshold pointed out that that would be a breach of minimum standards. Passed this point on to the agent.

Just waiting now to see if the fight continues!

Michael D Not Higgins

nothing wrote: »

An update on this. I contacted RTB who told me to contact Threshold.

Threshold are of the opinion that a precedent was set of the refuse being included in the rent and that I'm not obliged to pay extra now. There's been a bit of back and forth with myself and the agent this week about it, and I've followed the advice I got from Threshold.

The agent had sent a reminder letter which stated that access to the bins would be removed if non payment continued, threshold pointed out that that would be a breach of minimum standards. Passed this point on to the agent.

Just waiting now to see if the fight continues!

By all means you should continue to fight the cost however, just be aware that during your next rent review the landlord will try to recoup the cost there.

Caliden

nothing wrote: »

Apologies, it is a managing and letting agent. They have informed me of this new charge, it's to be lodged into the landlord's account directly every month on the same date as rent but as a separate transfer marked as refuse.

It is in my lease that I'm responsible for waste charges, it's the amount, the twelve day notice and the fact that I've no idea how the amount was calculated that are bugging me (waiting on an email response). Plus the fact it's been included for the last 6 years.

The bolded part just seems odd to me. It like a loophole to move some of the management fees on to the tenant.

If the lease says it's your responsibility to pay for refuse, then why should you pay the landlord?
20 euro per unit seems like a very arbitrary and rounded amount for communal refuse.

If there are 60 units like you said, that's 1200 a month for a few skips.


Found this comment from an older thread on this topic:
"If the refuse charges are included in the management fee then the landlord is getting full tax relief on the management fee and can only charge you for the bins IF he doesn't claim tax relief on that portion of the fee. Mentioning that might encourage him to rethink his position!"