Can I Negotiate Junk Removal Prices?
You’re about to sell the home you’ve been in for 10 years and just starting going through the stuff in your attic. You realize you’ve got a bunch of junk! You’ve heard about these junk removal companies and know some friends that have used them. You decide to do a quick internet search for local junk haulers in your area. You pick up the phone and call one to schedule. Before scheduling you ask what the price will be. The company explains how they charge and you decide to hold off booking and call them back. You think, how in the world can junk removal cost so much? This company I called must be a LOT higher than other companies. You pick up the phone and call a few more and realize that junk removal companies are mostly priced the same. Why does it cost what it does you wonder? It’s just hauling junk!
The truth of the matter is most junk removal business owners when they started their business got into it thinking the same thing. They found out the cost and said “dang, I can do that for a LOT cheaper”. Then they find out what it costs to run a junk removal business. You’ve got junk hauling employees to pay. The going rate for each employee is somewhere between $12-$18 per hour depending on your area. Then you’ve got to pay almost another $2 an hour for workers compensation insurance. You’ve got fuel, vehicle insurance, vehicle repairs, advertising cost, and more that has to be paid for. That new business owner quickly realizes there is a reason companies charge what they do.
Disposal fees or as they are called at the landfill, tipping fees, is a fee charged to junk hauling companies to dump the garbage. Though you might have an area that you can take your stuff to dump for free; professional junk removal companies don’t have that luxury. Those convenience centers are made for residential citizens, not commercial enterprises. Many areas charge anywhere from $30 to $150 per ton. Some areas have an $80 plus minimum. That means that it costs us a decent amount of money to dispose of your junk.
Because of the disposal fees that are paid by junk removal companies many of the cheap haulers are able to be cheap because they illegally dump. They take your stuff and dump it off on the side of the road or on private property. Here’s a little secret. If that trash is dumped and they find any indication of who the trash came from such as a piece of mail then you will be held responsible for the cost of clean up plus a fine. Hire a cheap junk removal vendor is again setting you up for a risk if they illegally dump.
If you do find a cheap company, chances are they are un-insured. They especially won’t have workers compensation insurance. Do NOT under any circumstance allow a company to come onto your premises to complete a job unless they have workers comp. If an employee gets injured on your property and you hired a company that did not have insurance you could be left holding the bag on an employee injury. So when you go on Craigslist and find a cheap hauler that doesn’t have insurance. If he comes onto your property and gets injured and decides to sue, the courts could decide you were his employer and thus responsible for medical bills. Here’s the part people don’t know as well. Often times your homeowners insurance will be exempt from paying medical bills to un-insured individuals. Your cheap junk removal job just got extremely expensive.
The other insurance exposure you have from an un-insured company is damage to your property. If you hire a cheap Craigslist junk removal company and they damage your floors you will be the one doing the repair. You can try to get it from the company/individual you hired but chances are if they don’t have insurance they aren’t gonna follow thorugh and foot the bill. So you are left having to make this repair. And once again. Your homeowners insurance is unlikely to pay this repair again as you hired an un-insured contractor to do the work. Insurance is huge! If you have any sort of assets don’t take the chance of a significant legal loss just to save a few bucks.
So, you’ve determined there is a reason junk removal costs what it does and it isn’t worth the risk of hiring some sketchy Craigslist guy. Is there anyway to negotiate these costs? Your answer is yes. But it’s gonna be a bit more involved on your part. Here are the things you can do to help a junk removal company have lower expenses for your job which they could pass onto you.
Don’t have heavy stuff: Very dense trash such as shingles and tile will have higher disposal fees for your trash removal company. If you have really have item’s it’s going to be tough to negotiate.
- Have all the stuff in a neat pile in a driveway, the garage, or curb. That saves a trash removal company labor, which means you can negotiate.
- If items need to be bagged up then go ahead and do that.
- Be flexible on the arrival window. If you can schedule a day and the trash removal company finds the most efficient time to come to you then that will save the junk removal company some money. Some of those savings can be passed back to you.
- Have items that are mostly recyclable or can be donated: Again, this reduces the cost of doing business because the junk removal company doesn’t have to pay disposal on those items.
Negotiation is generally a game of give and take. To get a cheaper price you often have to give up something. In this case you are trading a discount for a bit more work for yourself.
Junk Removal Authority is a group of locally owned trash removal companies located throughout North America. When you hire a JRA affiliated company you are hiring a local business owner in your area. To schedule an appointment to test your negotiation skills enter in your zip code to start the booking process or give us a call to get scheduled. We look forward to helping you live a junk free life!