Bill for dustbin collection

[sazzyberry]

Hello,

I wonder if anyone can help me, we have a second home in the Indre region which we have owned since 2004. Every 6 months we get a bill for dustbin collection which is in addition to our tax d'habitation and fonciere.  It works out as roughly 152 euros a year which doesn't sound a great deal but when you work out that we only use the house for about 5 weeks a year is quite a lot for 5 or 6 collections.

My question is do we have to pay this bill or can we just take our rubbish to the communal bins as and when needed? I am about to be made redundant so any savings we can make would be hugely beneficial.

If anyone knows the answer to this I would be most grateful.

[Pickles]

The only circumstance in which you can get exoneration from the rubbish collection is if your property is more than 200 metres (I think that's the required distance) from the rubbish collection point. If the lorry comes round to your house then you are stuck with it.

There is one thing however; I would normally expect that you would get a bill once per year rather than twice. It IS the local authority that is billing you fore the collection isn't it?

Regards

Pickles

[sazzyberry]

Hi Pickles,

Thanks for your reply. Yes the lorry does come round to our house. The bill  comes from the local tresorie.

So it's not just a case that if you stopped paying they would stop collecting then? Are you saying that you are legally obliged to pay the bill?

Many thanks

Sarah

[FairyNuff]

We live in Indre and come under CCPI (Communauté de Communes du Pays d'Issoudun) for our rubbish collection. We have one a week and we pay about €150 a year for 2 people in a maison principale. Our bill is paid twice a year, in June and December. Before we moved here permanantly it was registered as a maison secondaire and we paid a bit less (about €100 I think). Is the house registered as a maison principale? Perhaps you could check that out. I do know that there are other villages around Issoudun which are served by a private company for their dustbin collections, and they pay very much more. I'm afraid I can't comment on any exemptions, but like many threads on here give this advice - could you ask at the mairie?

FairyNuff

[Pickles]

[quote user="sazzyberry"]Yes the lorry does come round to our house. The bill  comes from the local tresorie.[/quote]

Sorry, then you are stuck with it in that case.

[quote user="sazzyberry"]So it's not just a case that if you stopped paying they would stop collecting then?[/quote]

Far from it. If you stopped paying then the whole weight of French bureacracy would come after you with bared teeth. But you knew that, didn't you?

[quote user="sazzyberry"]Are you saying that you are legally obliged to pay the bill?[/quote]

Oh yes indeed, I'm afraid.

The document below gives a very good account of the rubbish collection tax:

http://www.pap.fr/argent/impots/la-taxe-d-enlevement-des-ordures-menageres-teom/la-taxe-d-enlevement-des-ordures-menageres-teom-a2514

Regards

Pickles

[sazzyberry]

Hi FairyNuff,

The bill states that it is for a maison secondaire and we pay the same times as you, June and December. Seems strange that we are paying the same as you for a maison prinipale but I suppose it varies from commune to commune, we come under Buzancais.

Thanks for your reply.

Sarah  

[BJSLIV]

 Are you saying that you are legally obliged to pay the bill?

Yes. and if you don't pay they will add further charges for late payment.

 

[Doodle]

My next door neighbour is english and the property is a holiday home. They do not have a bin. We have a bin collection once a week and pay once per year, this year at 123 euros, my neighbour's bill for this year was nearly 90 euros for the year. If we forget to pay or in our case for some reason never receive the May bill (we have to go into the Tresor Public armed with cheque and ask the amount payable), we receive a reminder in September but there is no extra to pay at that point although I believe the reminder states that if you don't pay up on this bill then interest will be added.

You may not have to pay towards the bin collection and therefore are perhaps due a reduction in that respect but in our commune (53) we all have to pay towards the convenience of the dechetterie.

Hope this is helpful Chris

[Pickles]

[quote user="knee gel"]My next door neighbour is english and the property is a holiday home. They do not have a bin. We have a bin collection once a week and pay once per year, this year at 123 euros, my neighbour's bill for this year was nearly 90 euros for the year. [/quote]

TEOM is calculated on the same basis as the taxe fonciere, so the reason for the difference may be due to differences in the TF.

Regards

Pickles

[JeanS]

We also have a maison secondaire in the Indre ( Ste.Severe) for the past few years I've been meaning to question our bill because I think we're being charged more than we should. We are charged redevance d'acces au service + residence secondaire - both the same amount plus forfait acces decheterie & points propres. The total is 66.74 euros per half year. They collect weekly and we're only here on average 4 months is a year.So next time I'm in La Chatre I'll go and check it out.

[Benjamin]

What has to be understood here is that these invoices don't only cover the emptying of your bin but the whole infrastructure of handling the waste that the commune prodeuces. Many of the costs involved are fixed expenses such as the operation of the collection service itself and running the decheterrie. The refuse disposal lorry comes past your house every week and if there's a bin outside they'll empty it and if not they simply move on to the next.