Suffering from a neighbour who collects rubbish? There is a way out, but not everyone knows about it
2024.10.30
Smells, cockroaches and the constant fear of fire are the daily reality for apartment dwellers with a neighbour who hoards rubbish. There are many stories of forced cleaning of flats and tons of rubbish being taken away, but not many people know how it can be done. Kęstutis Beržanskis, Head of Building Administration at Civinity Namai, a company that maintains and manages apartment blocks, explains what neighbours suffering from a hoarder can do.
Forced rubbish cleaning in Klaipėda
There have been many stories about forced cleaning of garbage from the apartments of people who accumulate it. According to K. Beržanskis, the administrator regularly deals with this problem in the apartment blocks maintained by Civinity Namai.
The most recent case was in the Klaipėda Sportininkų Street apartment building, where garbage was removed from one apartment for the second time in October this year.
The problems in the building started more than a decade ago, when a previously tidy neighbour, described by her neighbours as pedantic, started to accumulate rubbish in her flat. The first forced cleaning of the apartment took place in 2016, and now the apartment has been cleaned for the second time.
“In this two-room apartment, the first time, there was rubbish up to the ceiling. When the apartment was cleaned this year, we found rubbish up to half the height of the apartment. After the cleaning, we removed two full containers of various types of rubbish, totalling 40 cubic metres,” he says.
This is not the only case of forced clean-up of a garbage hoarder’s home. A year ago, the company carried out such work in Kaunas, when over 60 cubic metres of rubbish were removed from an apartment block in Petrauskas Street.
Dangerous for both the hoarder and the surrounding residents
Household rubbish hoarding is prohibited by both the Waste Management Act and municipal waste management and cleanliness rules.
However, it is usually people suffering from compulsive hoarding syndrome who are confronted with this problem, and neither pleas from neighbours nor threats of fines from the authorities can help them change their behaviour.
This situation is a threat to both the hoarder and his neighbours.
The garbage in such an apartment is accompanied by a variety of parasites such as cockroaches, rats and lice, which travel throughout the apartment block. The parasites spread various diseases and infections.
In addition, an apartment where rubbish is stored becomes a dangerous fire hazard. A careless use of fire or a dropped cigarette butt is enough to ignite the apartment and cause a fire not only in the apartment, but also in the whole block of flats and the people who live there.
Neighbours can initiate rubbish clearance
For residents who do not know what action they can take and where to ask for help, the Housing Manager recommends that they take the initiative themselves, as this is the quickest and most effective measure.
Forced entry and cleaning of a neighbour’s rubbish-strewn flat is only possible with a court order. To do this, a majority of the owners of the flats and other premises in a block of flats and other premises in a block of flats must first decide to go to court and authorise the building administrator to do so.
Once the majority decision has been obtained, the administrator prepares and submits a lawsuit on behalf of the residents of the apartment building, asking the court to order the owner of the apartment to clean the apartment himself, and, failing that, to allow authorised persons to enter the apartment and to allow them to carry out the rubbish removal work there.
The court decision allows the apartment to be cleaned without consent
After a court decision, the building administrator usually uses letters and notices to ask the resident who is accumulating rubbish to clean up the flat and remove the rubbish themselves within a period of time specified by the court.
Although the hoarder usually does not take any action, this procedure is mandatory. If the hoarder fails to clean up the apartment voluntarily within the time limit, the building administrator applies to the court again for an enforcement order.
In the case of a writ of execution, the administrator applies to the bailiff for the enforcement of the court decision and, together with the bailiff, enters the premises of the apartment and carries out the cleaning of the apartment.
You may have to wait up to six months to have your apartment cleaned
According to Beržanskis, the process is not a quick one, as many people and institutions are involved.
On average, it takes about half a year from the time when the owners of flats and other premises in a block of flats and other premises decide to go to court to the time when the flat is actually cleaned.
“The process is not as fast as the residents of the apartment block, who suffer from dangerous neighbourhoods on a daily basis, would like. Therefore, if you notice a neighbour’s tendency to accumulate rubbish, you should be alarmed as early as possible and take action to tackle the problem,” the expert advises.
You can also ask the prosecutor for help
Residents facing such a problem also need to understand that cleaning the apartment is a temporary solution. People who accumulate rubbish usually do not stop accumulating rubbish once their house has been cleaned, so eventually the apartment will fill up again.
In such cases, the procedure has to be repeated again: the court is approached again and only when the court’s decision is available is it enforced again.
The other way is to go to the public prosecutor’s office and ask for the protection of the public interest. The public prosecutor’s office can initiate a procedure to restrict the legal capacity of a litter-picker by appointing a guardian with the approval of the court. In this case, the guardian has the responsibility to take care of the sick person and to ensure that his/her home does not pose a threat to his/her safety and that of others.