VERY IMPORTANT LANDLORD NOTIFICATION

TMHA Switching to Direct Deposit of ALL HAP Checks


TMHA management along with the TMHA Board of Commissioners has made the decision to implement a direct deposit system where all monthly HAP payments to landlords will be directly deposited into the landlord’s bank account through an electronic funds transfer process. Please see the Question of the Month (other side) for much more information on this.

Notice Regarding Trash Pick-up Charges in New Philadelphia

The New Philadelphia City Council has enacted a monthly fee structure to pay for the city operated trash pick-up service within the city. The methodology to pay for this monthly trash charge was to add that charge as a separate line item on the monthly water/sewer bill charged to city residents. This process was initiated in January of 2007, and the typical residential charge is $8 per month.

This is where a potential problem has arisen regarding the payment of this trash service fee in New Philadelphia. Who is responsible for paying the trash service charge, the landlord or the tenant? Previous to 2007, all TMHA leases involving rental units in New Philadelphia indicated that the owner was responsible for paying for trash service. The reason for this was that this service was paid through a property tax levy which was obviously paid by the owner when the property taxes were paid for that property.

As far as the responsibility for paying the water & sewer utility, this has always been at the discretion of the owner when negotiating the lease. Many tenants pay the water/sewer utility themselves in New Philadelphia and in some instances the owner paid this utility according to the lease. This is where a potential problem has arisen. Those tenants in New Philadelphia who pay their own water/sewer bills are now seeing a monthly charge added to that bill to pay for trash service. According to pre-2007 TMHA leases on units in New Philadelphia, theTENANT IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR PAYING THE TRASH CHARGES ON THE WATER/SEWER BILL. Landlords cannot just automatically pass on the trash charges when providing the tenant the water bill and expect the tenant to pay them. The landlord is still responsible to pay the portion of the bill designated for trash collection services.

Landlords who are now desiring that their tenants in New Philadelphia start paying the monthly trash utility charges may request that change. However, this requires that a change be made to the family’s lease.In order to make this lease change, the landlord must request this change in writing to TMHA. As with all TMHA lease changes, the tenant must be given at least sixty (60) days notice of that change. So for example, if a landlord requests this trash responsibility payment change to the lease after June 1st, 2007 but prior to June 30th, 2007, the tenant would not have to start actually paying for the trash service until September, 2007. If you have any questions regarding this process, do not hesitate to give us a call at the TMHA office at (330) 308-8099.  

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