Southampton May Make Landlords Responsible For Carter Service

Southampton Town may soon require landlords to prove a carting service is disposing of their tenants' garbage.

Town Councilman Brad Bender said the proposed law—which would require landlords to provide the proof when applying for a rental permit—comes in response to a growing problem. Garbage is being left out on the street, in plain view on private property, or dumped in municipal garbage receptacles, he said.

If you are a landlord in the Town of Southampton doing business—and renting a property is doing a business—you will be solely responsible for the garbage that is generated on your property … whether you generated it or not," Mr. Bender said.

A common problem with both part-time and year-round rentals is that the lease doesn't designate who is responsible for garbage disposal, and landlords and tenants often claim the responsibility lies with the other party, he said.

The result is that the trash has been accumulating at rentals or in town trash bins or Dumpsters on private property. Mr. Bender said that in some cases, people follow the schedule for when the town will pick up municipal trash cans and make sure to dump their household refuse the night before.

"I think it would prevent a lot of people who are being lazy from dumping their household garbage at the beach or parks rather than taking it to the dumps," Superintendent of Parks and Recreation Chris Bean said this week of the proposed change. "It will ensure that people have garbage pickup and take some of the burden off of us picking up the garbage at the beach and county parks."

Currently, there are 1,460 active rental properties in Southampton Town, Mr. Bender said. The new requirement would apply to all new and renewal applications for rental permits. Last week, the town opted to hold open a public hearing about the proposal—during which nobody addressed the board—while the town attorney's office hammers out details of the new law.

"We want to make sure that anything we put in place is constitutional and enforceable," Mr. Bender said.

He also hopes to change the town code to make it illegal to dump household garbage in a municipal can. The goal is to reduce the number of overflowing cans throughout the town.

Mr. Bender would also like to see a change to the town litter ordinance to make it illegal for people to place household garbage in the town's bins.

He described being at the Bridgehampton Commons and watching a woman pull up to a municipal can in a Mercedes SUV, then dump three large bags of household garbage before driving off. The can was instantly filled, and it was overflowing for the rest of the day, he said.

Mr. Bean said the town has increased the frequency of pickups in high-traffic areas. During the summer, his department collects trash from each town park and beach once a day, seven days a week, and two to three times daily on weekends and holidays. In the winter, trash is collected roughly three times a week.

Mr. Bender said it should not be up to the Southampton Town taxpayers to fund the pickup of a private homeowners' garbage, which is what ends up happening when a town employee empties a can filled with private waste.

"It is an abuse of town receptacles," Mr. Bender said. "Once we clean up the rental law, I will be going back to the town code to see if we can amend the littering laws, so that if you are disposing of household waste, that will be a violation."

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