To use dead neighbours bins

[Lovelyskyx]

My elderly neighbour sadly suddenly. died a few months ago, and I always used to use his bins (with his permission) as he had very little waste and we have a big family and many pets.
I haven't put anything in them since he passed as it felt disrespectful, even though I know he would say yes if I asked him and he was here, but we have a few extra bags of rubbish and the bins are being collected today, so I popped them in and put his bin out.
Now I'm feeling bad and worrying that his relatives would take it badly if they saw (they come round once or twice a week , but I haven't had chance to really talk to them or ask permission as it wasn't on my mind). , I'll obviously pop the bin back as soon as it's emptied.
Am I terrible for this?

True. But it's fine to continue until there are new owners.

This will sound bonkers OP, but someone might want the waste from your guinea pigs. I have hens on my allotment and my fellow allotmenteers are always after the clearing from their coop for their compost bins.

If you put an ad up on your local Facebook page I bet some mad keen gardener will collect it from you on a regular basis.

Your house must stink. Urgh.

Is it even possible to 'just get another bin'?

Unless you qualify by e.g. having more than a certain number of people (excluding pets!) in your household or a medical condition that generates a lot of clinical waste, most councils won't allow you to have an extra bin - even if you're happy to pay for it each month.

They don't have any mechanism for charging domestic customers for doorstep waste collections other than what you already pay as part of your council tax; so you get whatever you qualify for free and any extra has to be taken to the tip or taken away by a private waste company that you pay.

It's not always necessary to post what you think......

No problem.

We had 6 large cats and three giant breed dogs in a very average 3 bed semi for years. The cats shared two big covered litter trays that were cleaned out and refilled every night. Dogs fully housetrained with garden access and regular long walks, poo always bagged up straight away. No, the house didn't stink.
If you have a lot of commitment and a good routine it is perfectly possible to have multiple pets in a normal house. I've always worked from home and since covid my partner is wfh also so that helps I suppose.

Agree. Especially smelly stuff like dog/cat poo and rat wee! Amazed that people think it's OK. The last thing his family need right now is having to approach neighbours and have awkward conversations. You need a new plan- compost heaps should help a lot since the bedding will be the bulkiest element of the waste.

I had 1 cat in a 2 bed terrace way back, was fastidious and still even with a covered tray if he pooped it stank like high heaven. I have 1 small dog just now, again fastidious and I'm aware of his odour. I think you must not be aware of your own stench. Like the febreeze naoe blind advert

I really think you ought to ask his relatives, unfortunately the person who originally gave permission is not the owner anymore and you need permission off the owner. They might be happy to agree to allow you to use it temporarily until they've sorted what they are doing with the property (move in or sell it on) if you ask but they might feel a bit miffed off if you did it without asking.

I'm not nose blind, far from it. I actually have hyperosmia from chronic migraine, my sense of smell is heightened and I need to have a fragrance free house. I agree cat poo stinks, but we move it straight away. I can smell my cats at times but I have spare litter trays and swap them over every two days. I wash the litter trays outside with hot soapy water.

Large, naturally moulting dogs don't always have a strong dog odour by comparison with small dogs and unless they get very wet you don't notice it all.

I have had this situation from the other side, where I was the family of the deceased relatives. What I would say is, it is OK if you put your rubbish in the day the bin is due to be collected, and if you put the bin out and return it afterwards, and if it doesn't leave the bin smelling really bad. However what I found was that I would go to do some clearing of the house and go to use the bin only to find it was full of someone else's stinking rubbish. Once someone put dog shit in - that was really annoying. I had to pay to have it cleaned.

It was during lockdown too and one time they filled up the cardboard bin so I could get nothing else in at all. Honestly it was infuriating and meant I wasted a trip there.

I did go round to the neighbours either side to ask if they knew who had filled the bins and explain the difficulties, and both lots denied knowing anything about it, but it mostly stopped after that - sometimes I found a few bags in. If it had continued I was seriously considering putting gravity locks on them.

I think its fine long as you only do it on the night before bin day/on the day itself as they might start clearing the house & need to use the bins.

Actually that's not true for Waste collection. Depends where you live. Where i am, we pay a yearly fee of £55 per bin, double that if you have more than 1 bin. This is outside of the council tax. So you couldn't just grab your neighbours waste bin and use it, you also have to pay for having an 'extra' bin (£38 + £55 +£55).

They may not be collected, you get an exemption
in council tax when someone dies, but that means they don’t collect the refuse.

I wouldn't do it, OP.
The relatives of your neighbour are probably dealing with the estate and will be paying a reduced council tax that may mean no bin collections. Two possible outcomes here 1) the bins don't get collected and the family has to deal with a big bin of smelly animal litter 2) the council gives them a fine (council in our area is pretty strict on this)
Speaking as someone who is dealing with wrapping up a relative's estate at the moment this bin situation would just be an extra headache that I could do without. Grief and sorting out someone's affairs are super draining.
I know your neighbour was being kind but unfortunately I think the decent thing of you to do would be to make alternative arrangements for your household waste.

Indeed.

My brother and I were executors for our late mother's estate.

Our mum had owned her bungalow and as executors, we applied to the council for a six month grace period while the house was being cleared of contents and prepared for being put on the market, during which time no council tax would be charged. We managed to sell the house and complete the conveyancing within six months and the property remained council tax free until the new owner took possession.

The water company also froze her account and no water rates were charged to the estate during the period when the house was empty.

Over the years, my mother had allowed various neighbours to use her drive to park their cars or their visitors' cars as she had a garage but no car, herself.

Had any of them continued to do this after her death, I would have expected them to have discussed this with us first as the executors are responsible for the safety of the property until it has been sold and we had to take out a special unoccupied house insurance policy until the sale of the property had been completed.

If a neighbour had continued to make use of her bins for disposing of bags of animal waste (or any kind of waste) without discussing with my brother or with me a) whether the bins would continue to be emptied and b) whether we were happy for them to continue to do this, I would not have permitted this to continue.

I am also surprised that so many posters think this is OK when the OP has not spoken to the relatives about this.

Some people are vile saying ops house must stink! What would compel a person to be so unnecessarily rude ?!

The bins belong to the local authority and are assigned for use by the house. You can hardly ask your neighbours permission where he has gone!

I would carry on using them until the house appears to be sold. So long as you put nothing messy in them and bring them back in I cant see a problem.

Some people are very petty and territorial about their bins. One time I was ill with noravirus. I put a small bag of (neatly tied up and non drippy) rubbish in my neighbours half empty bin so I would not have the hassle of going out when I felt ill. The bin was already out for collection but she found it and dumped it the bin bag by my gate. A few weeks later all her bins went "walkies" down various back alleys so she had to hunt for them. They did not get emptied that week. But then I can be petty too and I enjoyed the idea of her stressing over her bins.

A few weeks later all her bins went "walkies" down various back alleys so she had to hunt for them. They did not get emptied that week. But then I can be petty too and I enjoyed the idea of her stressing over her bins.

You sound delightful.

Thank you! I would not expect an ill person to be dragging bins around if mine was already out for collection and half empty. I probably wouldnt even notice.

They certainly do! We have to pay an extra £50 a year to get our green bin emptied.

No it would be really cheeky. Of course you can't put stuff in his bin now. What on earth will the new owners think. Dreadful idea. And it may impact on the council charges due on the house.

I really don't understand animal hoarders.

OP you need to find a suitable solution to getting rid of all of your waste. Did you not take that into consideration when you chose to have so many pets? I wouldn't be happy if I was his family. Having the bins used for animal waste can bring rodents to the property.

We use a neighbours bin as the house is empty but the condition is we don’t use it till it’s due to be put out. So we put it out and take it in every week and if there is space/it’s empty we can fill it. As they are clearing the house and some weeks nobody comes to continue clearing other weeks maybe one bag.

But we did ask first. On their side they don’t have to worry about bin day while clearing and the house looks used as the bins go in and out.

To those on about smell we have 5 cats, their have their own bathroom for their litter trays which are also hooded, that’s off a corridor of the house nobody but us residents would need to use as it only leads to the catio, cats bathroom and outhouses.

You are as others said going to need to find a long term solution, ours isn’t pet waste it’s general rubbish or rather mostly loads of recycling. Come winter we will just move to burning all paper/cardboard in the incinerator.