HOA Trash Can Cleaning for Townhouse Communities: One Contract, Every Cart

HOA trash can cleaning is one service agreement between a homeowners association and a cleaning company that covers the curbside carts of every home, instead of each owner booking their own. Where each townhouse has its own garbage and recycling carts, the association arranges it once and the whole street is done on the same visit.

That is different from a shared corral or cart bank, which the association usually owns outright — see whose job it is to clean an HOA cart corral. Here the carts belong to each home, but the board takes on the cleaning.

Boards arrange townhouse community trash bin cleaning for every home because in a townhouse row the carts are a shared problem even when each one belongs to a different household.

• Curb appeal. In many townhouse communities the carts are stored in front of the homes, beside the door or the driveway, with no side yard to hide them in. A row of stained carts is the first thing a visitor sees.
• Pests work the whole row. Flies, roaches and rodents follow the smell of organic residue. When carts stand a few feet apart along one frontage, one dirty cart keeps the row on their route.
• Odour between neighbours. With shared walls and front doors side by side, a cart that has turned is smelled next door. Those complaints land on the board.
• One standard. Every cart is cleaned on the same day to the same standard, and nobody has to police who has and who has not.

A trash can cleaning service for an HOA in South Florida works street by street on collection day. The board tells us how many homes and carts there are and which day collection runs; we arrive after the truck has emptied the carts and clean each one where it stands at the curb.

1. 01At the curb. Each cart is washed inside and out with heated water at high pressure, then sanitised and deodorised. It takes a few minutes per cart and the cart is usable straight away.
2. 02Nothing drawn from the homes. We bring our own water. The dirty water goes into a collection tank on our truck or trailer — nothing is left on your property.
3. 03One bill. The work is priced per cart for the whole community and billed to the association, not to individual owners.

An HOA board motion for community-wide cart cleaning should say exactly what is being bought, how often, and how it is paid for.

1. 01Scope. Every home's garbage cart and recycling cart, with the number of homes and carts.
2. 02Frequency. How often the community is cleaned — monthly, for example. Frequency changes the price, so decide it first.
3. 03Timing. The community's collection day, after the truck, at the curb.
4. 04Billing. Invoiced to the association, from the budget line the board names.
5. 05A written contract. Florida law says an HOA's contracts for services must be in writing, and if one requires the association to pay more than 10 percent of its total annual budget including reserves, the association must obtain competitive bids — though it need not accept the lowest (section 720.3055, Florida Statutes).
6. 06A noticed meeting. Board meetings must be open to all members, and the notice must specifically identify the agenda items and be posted in a conspicuous place in the community at least 48 hours ahead, except in an emergency, or be mailed or delivered to each member at least 7 days before (section 720.303).
7. 07Resident notice. A short note saying when cleaning starts and that owners need do nothing.

Whether an HOA can pay for trash can cleaning from its budget depends on its governing documents. Under section 720.303, Florida Statutes, an association's powers are those set out in chapter 720 and, except where the chapter limits them, those in its governing documents.

The same section requires an annual budget setting out the association's operating expenses. The practical question is what your declaration says; if unclear, ask the association's attorney or manager before the vote. We clean the carts; we do not interpret your declaration.

Residents need to do nothing when the HOA arranges cart cleaning. They put their garbage and recycling carts at the curb on collection day as they normally would and leave them there. Nobody needs to be home and nothing is billed to the household.

Bagging waste and closing the lid still helps a clean cart stay clean. The townhouse and villa communities of Greenacres are a typical example of this setup — carts at the front, close together, all out on the same day.