Property owners have to deal with a lot of challenging situations working with tenants. Whether you rent a home, apartment, storage unit, or another piece of property in Houston, one difficult situation is deciding what to do with trash and belongings that have been left behind.
Obviously, you want to move fast so that you can prepare the property for the next renter. But, if a tenant has abandoned the property or if you were forced to evict a renter from the property, it could take a while to remove everything that was left behind.
Consider these eviction clean out tips to help accelerate your timeline, including how to dispose of accumulated waste at your property.
Eviction Clean Out Tips and Other Things to Think About
When disposing of waste and other items during a clean out, you want to make sure you have a solid game plan to support the project and protect your interests. Here’s our tips.
1. Rent a Roll-off Dumpster
Our first recommendation is to rent a roll-off dumpster that you can keep on-site at the property to support the cleanout. It’s important to have a designated location to handle all of the waste that you need to remove throughout the course of the cleanout.
At Gainsborough Waste, we can help you select the right-size dumpster to rent for the cleanout. We can help you decide between our various size dumpsters:
- 15-yard dumpster for smaller cleanouts (e.g. one storage unit).
- 20-yard dumpster for smaller-to-medium cleanouts (e.g. one apartment unit).
- 30-yard dumpster for medium-to-large cleanouts (e.g. a house).
- 40-yard dumpster for several cleanouts (e.g. multiple units at an apartment complex).
And, if you own multiple pieces of property at different locations in Houston, then we recommend renting one dumpster for each location so that you can efficiently bounce between each cleanout project. Then, when each dumpster has been filled — or when the job is complete — our team will service the dumpster on your schedule.
But, before you start using the dumpster, we have an important tip that will help you avoid headaches later on in the process.
2. Understand What to Dispose of
Before starting on an eviction clean out, we recommend performing some preliminary work. You should assess what has been left behind to determine what is clearly trash versus what could be considered valuable items and belongings.
For example, if you rent a home, you have likely encountered situations where you found piles of trash in the attic, garage, shed, or other storage areas on the property. A roll-off dumpster comes in handy to dispose of obvious waste.
However, you want to be careful about disposing of possessions and other material items that the previous renter left behind. You don’t want to expose yourself to a legal dispute if the renter comes back to you weeks later requesting their items.
Even if you believe the renter violated the terms of the rental agreement, which prompted you to evict them, or if they completely stopped communicating with you before abandoning the property, you don’t want to run the risk of a costly legal situation. So, take every precaution before disposing of valuable possessions.
3. Understand Your Obligations to Keep Property
In the state of Texas, the general timeline for landlords is to keep a renter’s possessions for 30 days, or otherwise stated in your rental agreement with the tenant.
While we are not attempting to provide you with legal advice, we are simply providing a recommendation that you should make every effort to communicate with the tenant about picking up their belongings before you dispose of the items.
If you cannot wait 30 days because you need to complete the clean out and turn over the property to another renter, then it is generally acceptable to place the items in storage until the renter can pick up their items. Again, it’s important to be proactive by attempting to communicate with the previous tenant about the status of their belongings.
You should also document every valuable item that was left behind and maintain good records of how you handled each item. This way, you can support your actions if there is an issue in the future.
Talk to Gainsborough Waste About Renting a Roll-off Dumpster
When you are ready to get started with an eviction clean out in Houston, then reach out to our company to rent a roll-off dumpster. Our expert team will help you decide what size dumpster to rent and we’ll schedule delivery to your location.
Because we are locally owned and operated, we offer a 99 percent same-day service rate. Let Gainsborough Waste take care of your waste needs so that you can quickly turn over the property to the next tenant.
Give us a call today at 713-785-8050 to schedule your dumpster rental. You can also contact us via our website form or email us at [email protected] to get started.
