Michael Bushnell
Publisher

After tenants at 100 Cypress were evicted, a mountain of the tenants’ property was piled up on the curb, completely covering the sidewalk.

Travis Silvers, illegal dumping inspector in the Northeast community, gave the property owner and property management company a 24-hour notice on Thursday, Feb. 27, to remove the illegally dumped trash from the curb or they would face a $1,000 fine.

The next morning, on Friday, Feb. 28, the property owner and their management company arrived to remove the trash.

“It is my hope the property owner got the message we were sending yesterday,” said Silvers. “This kind of dumping won’t be tolerated by the community or by the city.” 

Placing an evicted tenant’s belongings on the public easement or sidewalk is a violation of City statute 62-89(a) which states:

No person shall dump or otherwise deposit or cause, permit, suffer or allow the dumping or depositing of any garbage, rubbish, yard waste, litter or any other offensive or disagreeable thing in any public place, public building or market, or on or along any sidewalk, street, alley, boulevard, highway, right-of-way, viaduct, tunnel, park or parkway, or upon any private property or in any refuse container located thereon without the consent of the owner of the property, nor shall any person dump or deposit or cause, permit, suffer or allow the dumping or depositing of garbage or household refuse in any city litter can or basket upon any street.

Landlords, however, are required to give tenants a 48-hour notice to collect their belongings prior to an eviction. 

The statute is a county statute that dictates how landlords will make an evicted tenant’s possessions available to them following an eviction.

“Regardless, landlord set-outs, unless it’s part of a scheduled bulky item pick up, is considered illegal dumping,” said John Baccala, spokesperson for the city’s Neighborhood and Housing Services Department.

A representative of the property management company at the dumpsite indicated that their tenants had stacked the trash at the curb when they learned they were being evicted and that the property management company was just trying to clean up the mess. 

“Our tenants knew they were getting evicted and this is the stuff they didn’t want,” said the management company representative. “The trash hauler we called is trying to get us on his schedule. We understand and we’re hoping to have it gone by the end of the day.”

According to Baccala, a summons to the owner of the property would be prepared if the trash was not removed by Saturday morning. 

On Saturday morning the trash had been removed and the area had been cleaned up.