Posted by Just a Tenant on 3/16/2011, 23:56:06, in reply to "Garbage collection"
I can certainly empathize with your concerns here, but also wish advise that you don’t jump to conclusions. There are other reasons why a contracted company will withdraw services from a customer, such as a billing dispute, and in such a case the vendor always has the leverage of withdrawing services. That being said, the fact that the landlord (and I am assuming you have contacted the actual landlord and not just a superintendent that may not be privy to the issues at hand) does not know what is going on could be of concern, but you also have to be aware that many landlords rely on other people (accountants/agencies) to deal with the payment of their bills and your raising concerns to him may have truly been the first time he became aware of a problem. All of this is said with the intent of giving the landlord the benefit of the doubt, and assuming your building is otherwise well maintained and the tenants don’t have other MAJOR problems.
Now lets deal with the issue where the benefit of the doubt is not so generous, which would be understandable under such circumstances where bins to accept garbage from any company are not provided to the property within a reasonable amount of time – reasonable being approximately one week. (you have not said how large your building is)
You have several options that you can exercise one at a time, or all at once.
You can file a complaint within the City of Toronto with Municipal Licensing and Property Standards where an inspector will come out and issue a Municipal Work Order, and likely attempt to contact the landlord to find out what is going on.
You can file a complaint with the Provincial Enforcement Branch of the Ministry of Housing where an inspector will come out and issue a Provincial Work Order, and they will also attempt to contact your landlord to find out what is going on.
If as a result of no garbage bins, tenant garbage is piling up, you can contact the Public Health inspector and request they come out to weigh in on the subject.
Regardless of if you contact one, or all three of the agencies above, you can also contact (which I often recommend and wonder how many tenants do) your municipal representative/city councilor, explain the situation and request that they contact your landlord to find out what is happening.
All of these agencies/representatives should be able to advise the tenants of your building on an immediate course of action to bring about the installation of bins to collect the garbage for your building, if the landlord cannot or will not resume this service. Your city councilor may be a good bet here as (and don’t quote me) they may have the ability to arrange city garbage pick-up for the building, and billing the landlord for doing so, until the matter is resolved.
Good luck and let us know what happens.
--Previous Message--
: I'm not quite sure what to do and I'm
: concerned this could be the beginning of the
: end for the building.
:
: I live in a townhouse complex. 2 1/2 years
: now.
: 5 days ago the dumpster that was used for
: garbage collection was picked up by a
: flatbed loaded with other dumpsters and
: removed from the parking lot.
: We've asked the landlord what we should do
: with our trash and what was up with the
: removal of the dumpster. He says he doesn't
: know what's going on and he says we should
: hold onto our trash for the time being. He's
: not being very forward with information.
:
: Is this a common sign that the building
: owner is falling behind on payments for
: garbage collection?
: I mean, it's been only 5 days, but what if
: this persists for more than a 2 weeks?
: Would we need to file something with the
: Landlord Tenant Board since no one's picking
: up trash?
:
: Should we be on the lookout for stuff like
: our water being cut off? Maybe my roomate
: and I are just paranoid, but has anyone else
: encountered this?
:
: Is this an early sign of a property owner
: bailing on his/her property?
:
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