Hi I have just received a Avis des sommes a payer
Redevance d’Enlevement des Ordures Menageres, for €189. Is this in addition to the habitation and foncere taxes. We are only at the house no more than twelve weeks a year, having just recently bought it and as of yet have very little French. Any info would be appreciated.
It is indeed "only money" Barbara....annoying all the same !
Infact Peter the amount which I am paying is not in question.
I am have no problem with the figure but I am venturing and attempting
to understand all.....or as much as possible.
There is probably full detail relating to the 11.000 inhabitants in
your town informing the authorities of everything.
My bill is paid but the neighbour is not around to contest.
Still it is only money....
Comes and goes.
Not at all, I suggest it would be impossible to police such a system. I live in a town of 11000 inhabitants, does the Mairie know the movements of us all ? In any case if anyone has a gripe over their rates for bin collections then raise the point with the local authority. You have two months (if I recall) to contest the bill. Try to justify your non-presence and see what the reaction is.
Maybe a better system would be to take your name off the register and take your rubbish directly to the nearest tip if and when required and according to your presence in France ? Then everyone would be happy.
So it is an estimate?
The local authorities know plenty about the residents in small villages.
Is that not part of the job of the local Mare?
Yes Barbara but how on earth is the local authority to know how long a house owner stays at the property ? Difficult and costly to police and judge I would imagine. Just because someone has a résidence secondaire (french or english etc) doesn't mean to say they don't live there for just a few weeks durinb their holidays ! I know brits & other nationalities who spend a few days to a year at a time at their property so how do you determine the fees payable ?
a
ok
Can understand all the comments....But it still does not explain why a resident who is here
for a few weeks a year gets charged exactly the same as I do....AND
I have a bin every week in summer....COULD not would not keep it longer...There
is extra waste food in summer.
So, how does the chip get chipped from my neighbours bin if her does not put the
empty bin out for collection? This is the main mistry.
There are always rats but in London when I was in Chiswick it was crazy.
We paid for our refuse to be taken twice a week and the idea of once every
2 weeks is mad.
In UK it is not permissible to allow cats in catering premises ....
Here it is a little different?
Cats are less of a health hazard than rats.
Hi thank you for all the replies! The original question was is this tax in addition to the habitation and the foncere. When the man from the Marie’s office came round to explain (in very good english) I understood that I would only be charged for when it was emptied, he said only put it out when it was nearly full Only non recyclable rubbish can be placed in the chipped bin, everything else we have to take to the tip. So we are paying €189 more a year to effectively get less of a service.
Hi Anthony.
If like me you have 2 Bins, 1 for house waste and 1 for recycling with Bar codes on. Your Bill should show how many times your bins were emptied, and also the 'Forfait' ie the minimum amount accounted for the year.
I put my Red bin out maybe once a month, but Smitcom Bill me a minimum of 18. My yellow bin even less !!, and again I am billed for 18.
There reasoning behind this is simple. The Truck passes once a week min 48 times a year for the Red bins, and 24 times a year for the yellow one's. So to make it pay, they have to Bill a minimum.
Also it depends on the size of Bin I pay for 1 person/ small Bin size. but nextdoor 2 adults 5 children pays twice as much !!
If you feel that you are getting a sore deal, go and see your local Smitcom office with a friend who speaks good French.
Best of luck!
Trust the bin men to take a bit of liquid. They used to love the Christmas box. When I lived in Sevenoaks they wouldn't let me in the tip in my Disco (said it was a trade vehicle when it wasn't) and I had to park outside and drag my stuff in! Councils and their staff look for ways of getting your money.
As yet no "extra" bill here up North & tips still free with no real restrictions. I have recently cleared out my MIL's house in Blighty & was horrified to find out that one local tip only allowed you to use it once per week & the other was only two bin bags per trip. I arrived with my French reg people carrier full, played it innocent & waived a £10 note at the lads. Two trips later the housed was cleared of rubbish. :-)
In fact the situation in the UK is I believe becoming worse. Certain councils only collect every two weeks, and that may become longer. They also send teams around to look in your bins to see if anything is in the "wrong" bin. That is why streets in many towns and cities are so unsightly with pavements and front gardens covered in bins, sacs etc. Many years ago I complained about the service in Lambeth and the next week they put my metal bin in the crusher and left the remains on my front door. They also trashed my brand new car by driving their truck down the side- there were no witnesses of course. The system here seems to be rather less confrontational but clearly the amount of litter and packaging is a huge problem which is costing us all dearly.
You should get a form to fill in each year which asks if you have a TV. You only send it back if you don’t. The licence is then deducted from your taxe d’habitation.
I didn't pay my mistake a couple of months back - the bill had somehow managed to get into the 'Paid' file. The weeks passed and I received the reminder but ignored it believing the bill had been paid then, a couple of weeks later thye binmen stopped taking the rubbish. I smelled a rat (literally !) and double checked and found the unpaid bill. The bill was paid (to Lille !) and collections duly restored thye following week.
Do you have the 'triage' in your area of the 87 Roger ? ie. separate bags for recyclable & normal waste etc ? We are a pretty modern set-up in St Junien but seem to be light years from the notion of recycling etc.
Hi again Doreen, I didn't realise I could use the card at any tip in the Hte Vienne and I had no idea there were 26 dechetteries in our department.
Good service here in St Junien my only gripe being the bad quality of the cards issued to us. I leave my card in the van and the heat hasn't been kind to it. I keep it out of the sun but this hasn't stopped the card suffering. It's curled up at the edges and fast becoming unusable ( a bit like me !) The cost for replacement is 10€ apparently !
Doreen, when the new cards were originally issued by our Mairie, we were in the same situation as you - a short journey into our next door Commune, or a long journey within our own Commune - so I asked if we could be allowed to use the nearest. No problem they said, and a near neighbour has told us that they were advised the cards will be accepted at any Dechetterie.
Dredging my memory way back to when I was a landlord I seem to remember that the landlord could claim the rubbish charge back from the tenant. Comes under something like "charges normalement incombant au locataire". But that was a long time ago and I'm not at all up to date on rental law..
Need to be careful with let property if you are the landlord as the landlord pays taxe fonciere whereas the tenant should pay for taxe habitation (unless exonerated) and other utilities. Why should the landlord pay for rubbish collection?
We pay for our rubbish collection as part of the Taxe Foncière because it's collective, not individual bins.
I have been paying this tax on a cottage for 43 years now! When it was a holiday cottage you still had to pay it. As 24% of the properties in our village are Brit owned (but not permanently occupied) the absentees to a good extent subsidise the locals. That cottage is now let and the tenant pays. With our own house we also pay- but there are no dustbin collecttions. Everybody has to take their stuff to wheelie bins or the decheterie which is very well organised and is situated on a site with a staggeringly beautiful view! I think that the system works well but clearly the very elderly will need help with their rubbish disposal.