Charging for Services not rendered

[truthhurtz]

What is the name of your state? Massachusetts

We have a dumpster that we got from a disposal company almost a year ago. We asked for weekly trash pick up. Shortly after we got the dumpster, my boyfriend, whose name the account is under was out of work. We fell behind in the bills and after 3 months they stopped emptying the dumpster, which is reasonable. That was in September. Since then they have continued to charge us a monthly fee of over a hundred dollars a month for weekly removal of 2 cubic yards of trash. They have not removed any trash, and are refusing to pick up this dumpster.


We have called them on the phone and asked them to remove the dumpster at which point they told us they would not remove it because then "We would have no reason to pay them". We have written them twice and received no response.

As I have tried to explain to them, I understand we owe for the time that they were actually doing the service, but do not think they can continue to charge us for a service that they have stopped providing over 6 months ago. This bill is now in excess of a thousand dollars, between the fees and the finance charges, which we just cannot afford, nor do I think we are legally bound to pay.

So my questions are:

Can they still charge us for weekly trash pick up if they are not
picking up any trash?

Don't they have to pick up this dumpster off of my property if I request
them to pick it up?

Thank youWhat is the name of your state?

 

[racer72]

Can they still charge us for weekly trash pick up if they are not
picking up any trash?

They sure can. Your boyfriend signed a contract for one year of service. Just because he decided to violate the terms of the contract does not make in null and void.

Don't they have to pick up this dumpster off of my property if I request
them to pick it up?

Not till the end of the contract.

Your boyfriend is about to learn an expensive lesson in contract law.

 

[truthhurtz]

But here is the thing, there is no signed contract. Not anything signed at all. Boyfriend called and said we wanted a dumpster for a short time while we cleaned out the garage. No implied term of service even verbally. He never signed anything, he called them they dropped off the dumpster. No paperwork at all.

 

[truthhurtz]

Also, if we wanted to get technical, the property is in my name only, if I want this dumpster off of my property don't they have to remove it? What if this wasn't the boyfriend but a tenant? If I do not want this on my property don't they have to get it out of here?

 

[Ozark_Sophist]

Our neighbor did the same thing you did only the bill was supposed to be split three ways. My wife and I kept paying our portion - we were never told they had stopped paying the bill. I noticed the dumpster was not being dumped. The neighbor lied and said they didn't know why it had stopped being dumped. Three months later, they were STILL using the dumpster by cramming and piling trash around the dumpster (of course it blew in our yard, our pond - poisoning our fish). They shot and killed a neighbor's dog and threw the body in the dumpster. It was rank.

We finally called the provider and found out the last payment was 5 months ago (we paid our share to the neighbor every month). They didn't have the phone number for our neighbor which we gladly provided. We called back and asked if it could be removed because of the trash, smell, and health hazard. The representative noted neighbor complaints and the dumpster was removed.