Garbage, Garbage, Garbage

Written by Susan Bailey, MS

What is it with people and garbage? How hard is it to throw garbage where it belongs instead of all over the ground, like this? It is uncalled for to allow the outside of a rental property to look like this one does.

City inspectors go through town looking for things like this. When they find it, the owner gets a letter and is given so many days to have the area cleaned. The problem is that the owner does not live there and cannot go on the property and begin throwing stuff away. So we call the tenant, tell them how many days they have to get the area cleaned before the inspector returns.

If the inspector returns and the area has not been cleaned, the owner gets a citation for it. It doesn’t seem fair in all actuality, but he is the owner. Inspectors know most of these places are rental properties, and they do try to work with the owners. If the owner does get a citation, usually he will take it to court, plead not guilty, and then get a hearing date.

The magistrate knows that this is not the fault of the owner as it is a rental property. Personally, I think the tenants should get the citations, and then maybe people will start cleaning up the property where they live once they know they are liable for the costs of court and fines.

So, the owner goes to court, and sometimes the magistrate will fine the owner. Maybe he feels the owner should have better control over his properties, regardless. That is not really the case as the garbage is caused by the tenant, and the owner cannot control the tenant. The owner can harp to the tenant over and over, and if the tenant still does not clean up the outside, then the only other thing the owner can do is evict the tenant, and that costs more money to go to court for evictions.

If the owner does get fined, our company charges the tenant for the fine money and the court costs. Seems reasonable to me. Chances of ever receiving the money from the tenant are slim though, and if the tenant gets evicted, he/she will usually just leave the mess for the owner to clean up anyways.

Garbage has no place on rental properties, and our tenants should know this from when they sign the lease and the other items in our rental package. The problem seems to be that people just want to sign the papers, but do not really listen. Then the property owner ends up paying for the costs to clean it up once the tenant is evicted.