Two questions about PA law (not gun law)

[marinville]

Hello everyone. As you can surely tell, I'm new here. I just recently purchesed my first firearm, and I have been reading your forums as a guest for about a month, to gather information on firearms i may want to purchase, as well as my rights and gun laws that concern me as a new firearm owner.

Unfortunately my first post does not relate directly to firearms, but as I have been reading I have noticed that a number of you seem to be quite knowledgeable regarding our rights and laws and ordinances of or state/region.

As a preemptive measure to those who will surely tell me to seek a lawyer, I assure you I can not afford one. Of course, that is no ones problem by mine and I do not wish for you to cry for me, rather I respectfully request that anyone who may be able to help me, please do so. And if you can not or wish not to help, that of course is your choice.

my first dilemma is a short and hopefully simple one, and actally does relate to firearms in a round about way. It is the following: I would like to know how I may obtain a copy of my bureau's ordinances, (and also the ordinances of my surrounding areas.) I require this information because I would like to ascertain where I may be legally allowed to discharge a firearm, for the purpose of target shooting. (It should go without saying that an appropriate backstop will surely be used.)

My bigger problem deals with garbage services at my place of rent. I live in an apartment building, along with possibly ten other sets of tenants. I do not have a lease. I have been hear for upwards of three years. My landlord and I have a verbal agreement that he would give me thirty days notice if he were to require us to leave, and I would give him thirty days notice if I decided to leave. With that said, recently (ie: today) my landlord has placed a notice on my door that he would be locking our dumpster certain days of the week because he is concerned with the possibility of non-residents using said dumpster. (It could be mentioned that I could and may simply bypass this lock with a certain amount of force, though not breaking anything.) he has also requested that we not stack our garbage outside of the locked dumpster (because that is "just stupid) so I can only assume he wishes us to leave our rotting garbage in our apartment until he sees fit to allow us to dispose of it. You may have guessed that I do not quite agree with his way of thinking, and may have told him so, had I noticed him leaving the notice.

It might also be mentioned (though irrelevant) that this particular landlord has never fixed anything in my apartment in my time here, and i have often given up on asking for such, and simply fixed the problems myself.

So, as I was saying, my real question here is... is my landlord legally responsible for providing adequate garbage facilities? (all days of the week)

and If you think not, because of my lease-less-ness, suppose that I did have a lease, would he then be responsible?

Thank you to everyone who thinks they may be of help, and also, I'm glad to be a new member here and hopefully will productively contribute to the community in the future.

BTW: I do possess the written copy of this notice (if that may matter.)

[IV_Warrior]

Can't help ya on legal answers, but perhaps before you get too worried on the garbage issue, you could have a friendly talk with the land lord. Maybe suggest he keep it locked at all times, but give you all keys so you still have access anytime, but others (people not living there) don't?

[Scrumpyjack]

Welcome to the forum.

I did not find the Borough of Houston's code online. You will need to go to Borough Hall and request to view the borough code. You may also call and check with your chief of police.

[marinville]

I am considering mailing this letter. (I am also considering simply bypassing the lock.)

Dear (omitted):

I am writing this letter to you to voice my concern over the big garbage problem. I regret to inform you that I do not agree with your solution to the big garbage problem, as it would surely cause an overflow of rotten garbage in my apartment, which I do not consider sanitary for myself and my family. I respectfully request instead that you provide a copy of the new dumpster lock to all tenants. This way tenants will be able to dispose of their garbage when it is necessary to do so, and non-tenants will be always barred from usage of the facilities. I must also inform you that until the time this situation is remedied I will in fact be stacking my garbage outside of the locked dumpster, as it is my opinion that to do otherwise would be ''just dumb". If you wish to discuss this matter, you may contact me at (omitted), between the hours of 4pm and 10pm on any weekday, as well as the weekend hours of 12pm - 10pm. Please, however, do not leave voice mails. Unfortunately, I am not able to check my voice mails at this time, nor do I foresee being able to check voice mail in the immediate future.

Signed:
(omitted)
Tenant, Apartment (omitted)





I am currently entertaining all suggestions. I also thank the poster who cleared up the ordinance question, from my original post.

[Bigrepp61]

if you dont have a lease you do not have any tenant rights... all he has to do is say he doesnt know what the hell you are doing there.... maybe you can reason with him and see if he will give you a key for the lock.... otherwise your stuck with garbage in your apt...

[marinville]

otherwise your stuck with garbage in your apt...

I assure you, this is not an option that will be considered.

[Bigrepp61]

make sure you do it at night.... dumping has a decent fine.... i would just try and talk to him about it...

[Paradigm]

Check with the borough secretary, the borough manager, the borough solicitor, and/or the borough code enforcement officer.

Those folks would be the best folks to ask.

[granuale]

if you dont have a lease you do not have any tenant rights...

As a lease can be (and in the OP's case is) a verbal agreement, he does have a lease. And he does have rights under that lease.

How many days per week will he unlock the dumpster? That's a pretty important point.

Regarding your letter:


Dear Landlord:

I am very concerned about the new garbage policy. If the dumpsters are only available at certain times, I will not be able to effectively use them and as a result will have stinking garbage piling up in my apartment. I appreciate your concern about non-tenants using the dumpster, and therefore request a key for myself so I may access the dumpster. I think this will solve the problem of unauthorized access as well as the health and safety concerns I have with leaving garbage inside. Please call me between xxx and xxxx to discuss this. My voicemail doesn't work, so if you don't get me please call back.

Thank you

[lildobe]

I don't see how rotting garbage will pile up in your apartment any more then it does in mine, where I have to wait for the weekly trash pickup...

But yes, if he feels that the dumpster needs to be locked, he should provide his tenants with keys to it. This is just my opinion though, and has no basis in legal fact.

Here is a good overview of the landlord-tenant laws in PA:
http://www.thelpa.com/lpa/landlord-t...enant-law.html