Welcome to your new home!

We hope you enjoy your stay in your new home.

Inventory

An inventory setting out the condition of the property will be issued within three weeks of your moving in date. Please email us if you do not receive the inventory within this timescale. In the meantime, please keep a note of any matters which you feel should be recorded and check that they are on the inventory when you receive it.  At the end of the tenancy, we expect the property to be in the same clean condition as it has been given to you.

Utility bills

If you have not arranged a bills package with a third party provider and are managing your own bills, you need to contact (within 7 days of moving into the property) the gas, electricity and water suppliers to arrange to put the bills in your name(s). Information on how to find out the gas and electricity suppliers can be found via the useful contacts link on the tenant portal. The opening meter readings were provided to you at the moving in meeting.

Any correspondence regarding utility bills which is not addressed to you should be left unopened by the front door to your property. Please give it to an AJ Estates representative when they next visit the propertry.

Refuse collection + recycling

There are four bins at your property (unless there are communal bins):

• Green bin – food + garden waste – collected every two weeks
• Blue bin – paper + cardboard – collected every two weeks
• Brown bin – glass bottles + jars, plastic bottles, tubs + trays + tins – collected every two weeks
• Black bin – non-recyclable rubbish – collected every two weeks

You should download a timetable for your bin collection from the following website:

www.manchester.gov.uk/bincollections

Full details of what you can put in each bin can be found via the refuse + recycling link on the tenant portal. Please read this guidance carefully as bins will not be emptied and fines can be levied by the council if you do not use the correct bin for your rubbish. Any fines levied by the council relating to the tenancy period are payable by the tenants.

If you do not recycle correctly or do not put your bins out each week, there will be a build-up of rubbish which is unsightly and may attract vermin. All bins should be kept clean and you should ensure that all rubbish placed in the brown and blue bins is loose (not in plastic bags) and is free from food residue etc. You should use bio-degradable bags for food waste in the green bin. Rubbish in the black bin should be put in tied bags.

You must leave the appropriate bins on the pavement outside your property by 7.30pm on the evening before collection. The bins must be put out even if they are only partly full.  You need to check the green bin as it can be used for your garden waste by our contractors (as well as for your food waste) and it remains your responsibility to ensure that it is emptied. You also need to bring the bins back into the perimeter of the property after they have been emptied. If you do not put out and retrieve the correct bins each week, this work will be done for you by a third-party contractor.  Any costs incurred for this work (approximately £8.00 for each occasion) are payable by the tenants as damages for breach of the tenancy agreement.

Please note that Manchester City Council will not empty bins if rubbish has been put in the wrong bin or the lid does not shut properly due to excess rubbish.  Similarly, additional rubbish bags which have been left outside will not be collected.  You will need to take excess rubbish to a waste and recycling centre.  If excess rubbish is left outside the property or a bin is not emptied for any of the above reasons, we will arrange for this to be rectified by a third-party contractor. The cost of this work is payable by the tenants as damages for breach of the tenancy agreement.

Replacement bins and plastic kitchen caddys for food waste can be ordered via the Manchester City Council website. Please note that Manchester City Council can charge for replacement bins (in the case of damaged or lost bins) and the tenants are liable for this cost. Accordingly, we recommend that the bins are retrieved promptly after being emptied and should always be kept within the perimeter of the property except for collection. You may also wish to check that your insurance policy covers the cost of replacement bins.