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Waste Container Council Permits are cheaper than Sydney Skip Bin Fines

News > Waste Container Council Permits are cheaper than Sydney Skip Bin Fines

Have you heard the urban myth that you can have a skip bin on the nature-strip or the road without getting permission from you local councils as long as it is only there a few days?  I suspect that a large proportion of the population of Sydney would probably think that this is true...

Stop now and read more so you do not become a victim of your local council or skip bin Sydney company.  Ignorance is not accepted by councils as an excuse and this could mean you get fined hundreds or dollars or become responsible for such a fine given to your skip bins provider.

In Hurstville you will get a $300 plus fine if you have a skip bin placed on the street outside your house if you or your skip hire service provider have not organised a proper skip bin permit for the period of time you plan to have the skip bin there.  And you can't necessarily rely on the skip bin provider either because often they may not know because the policies are not very well published, easily accessible or clear.  The other complexity is that there are many streets where either side of the road, or either end of the street  is the responsibility of different councils with different skip bin policies.

So how do I know, I fell victim to both a skip company and a council.  I had a customer order a bin. The normal company was unable to provide a skip bin because of a higher than usual work load so we set about finding a replacement supplier.  We were lucky in the first instance and one of our regular service providers warned us that a skip bin permit was required for the area. However we were not totally lucky because they were not sure how the permits work in that area because they refused to put bins on roads for insurance reasons and their experience of being hit with significant fines.  Looking for an alternate supplier I checked out the local government web site and found a list of approved suppliers.  I set about contacting the suppliers to get information on their services and the skip bin permit requirements.  I found one skip bin company that had a professional enough sounding customer service operator.  They assured me they were approved and they had permission to put skip bins on the road from the council and there was no need for any further payment other than the cost of the bin.  Ha ha ha...

A week or two after the bin was delivered I got a call from the skip bin company to inform that my credit card was to be charged for a fine they had received.  I followed up with the council and they informed me that once a fine was issued they could not retract it even if they wanted because it became the responsibility of the State Revenue Office.  When I spoke to the State Revenue Office they said they could do anything because they only collected the money.

Going back to the council they were sympathetic to my situation and explained the fine would not be reversed because it was meant for the skip bin company because they had not adhered to the council's skip bin policy and they were being fined as much for not informing me, as opposed to just putting the bin on the road.  And surprise surprise the skip bin company didn't want to discuss the matter as they already had my money and were not going to waste time on some one who wasn't interested in buying something.
  • Authored By:Stephen Shergold
  • Updated:08/09/2011