Calling By-Law Enforcement on a Neighbour

[DESS]

So who has done it?

I have had a couple of experiences with the by-law guys. Once, some lady across the street called on me because I had my 16' trailer parked in front of my driveway without the tow vehicle attached to it. I thought it was kind of harsh because I pay to store it just outside the city, brought it home on Thursday night so I could load it up to leave the next day - came home Friday to find a ticket. I suppose a rule is a rule, but a little slack on her part would have been appropriate IMO since it was just one night and I am very conscientious about not keeping it at my house.

I have also called by-law on my neighbours (different people than the one that called on me). Last winter this guy started parking his van on his front lawn. If I lived in Compton that might be fine, but it wasn't something I wanted to be looking at. I let it go for over a week before I finally called. And no, I didn't give him a head's up, but he is super unfriendly and frankly I didn't feel like dealing with him.

Any body have any thoughts/experiences on ratting out your neighbours and/or being ratted on?

[PowerPlayoffs06]

I live beside Bill Bruce, the head of Calgary By-Law, so my block is pretty well behaved.

[Muta]

When I lived with the rents, we lived on Crescent Hill and had a fairly unique landscape for our property. Nevertheless, the neighbour to the north of us called the City to complain that the tip of our spruce tree in the front yard was impeding her view of downtown. It wouldn't have been a problem to trim it for her in the name of neighbouly friendliness, but this is the same lady that tried poisoning the very same tree one day when none of us were home.

Plus, the tip of our tree that she wanted cut was ....3 inches. Her viewing window of downtown was 15 feet away. Bylaw office came; my dad told him to stick it because it was on our property and the tree had every right to grow. We never heard from the bylaw officer again or ever acted 'neighbourly' to the neighbour.

[bradster57]

Originally Posted by DESS

I have also called by-law on my neighbours (different people than the one that called on me). Last winter this guy started parking his van on his front lawn. If I lived in Compton that might be fine, but it wasn't something I wanted to be looking at. I let it go for over a week before I finally called. And no, I didn't give him a head's up, but he is super unfriendly and frankly I didn't feel like dealing with him.

Any body have any thoughts/experiences on ratting out your neighbours and/or being ratted on?

Unless you're really close friends with your neighbor it is never a good idea to give them a heads up before you call the city. If you do, and they don't do anything about the complaint, they'll always know that it was you that ratted them to the city.

[return to the red]

We used to live across from a drug house (didn't know this at the time) but the guy was also in concrete work so he had crappy vehicles, trailers that had flat tires, lumber and generally his place looked like shat. I called by-law on him numerous times but they never did anything about it because they said his business was registered out of his house so technically he was allowed to keep all that crap like that

It looked absolutely horrible so we sold our house and moved into a pretty up-scale neighbourhood thinking we would get away from that crap. Unfortunately I think we moved into an area that has many people that are "house-poor" because I see people BBQ'ing on the front step when they have a deck at the back and sheets used as curtains. Ah yes the joys of living in Lethbridge

[zukes]

What people do on their property is none of the neighbour's business, IMO. I would have been pissed about the trailer thing if I was you.

The car thing is a little different. If he is parking there just to avoid blocking another car in the driveway then okay, but if the have 3 cars and a two car driveway, then the neighbourly thing would be to ignore it.

[Rathji]

When I ran my landscaping business from my brothers home in Arbor Lake ,we were ratted out a few times.
-Once for trailer not being attached to our truck.
-Once for having to much stuff to park a vehicle in the garage,
-another time for having more than 3 'business related people' coming to the house in less than a week.

The last 2 we fought since we were doing some work on his house, but the trailer we just learned our lesson and didnt do it again.


On the flip side, there was a guy who owned 3-4 houses on that same street who had some sort of junk collection business I think, and all we would see him do is truck this stuff from one house to another and occasionally he would have a load that he would take somewhere ( customer maybe? ) His houses literally had this stuff in every room and his garage was stacked to the limit. Someone apparently complained, because one week he was out everyday filling up the huge roll off dumpster bins with the stuff.

[return to the red]

Originally Posted by zukes

What people do on their property is none of the neighbour's business, IMO. I would have been pissed about the trailer thing if I was you.

The car thing is a little different. If he is parking there just to avoid blocking another car in the driveway then okay, but if the have 3 cars and a two car driveway, then the neighbourly thing would be to ignore it.

I don't agree at all. The neighbourly thing to do would be to make sure that you don't put your neighbours in a situation where they have to call the by-law on you. Those rules are there for a reason.

edit: i agree the trailer thing would have choked me a bit as it was only there for 1 day but I could see if it was parked there for over a week

[metal_geek]

I called one time, on a neighbour who had a kids plastic wagon full of old pieces of sod on the front lawn, with weeds in that had grown to about 4 feet tall. I didn't call right away. After it being there all summer .... I asked if he'd like to sell it, seeing as how I had kids and he didn't I could use a second wagon.... I figured it was a polite way of getting rid of it.. He declined and said he might need it. (wtf?)........ It sat in the same place all winter and I finally called next june when the weeds started to flower again..... The showed up, and gave him a notice to clean up his yard. He did, by pulling it to his back yard, I moved a year after that an it was still in the same place he pulled it, weeds an all...
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UNWETDREAM101

[worth]

I'm moving into my first house next week so I guess I will have to deal with some of these things in the future.

But I plan to go and introduce myself to the neighbours to get off on a good foot since I have to live next to these people and they have to live next to me, as I doubt anyone still brings cookies and Jello to welcome new people to the neighbourhood anymore.

[DESS]

Originally Posted by zukes

What people do on their property is none of the neighbour's business, IMO. I would have been pissed about the trailer thing if I was you.

The car thing is a little different. If he is parking there just to avoid blocking another car in the driveway then okay, but if the have 3 cars and a two car driveway, then the neighbourly thing would be to ignore it.

But doesn't a well-kept neighbourhood have higher property values? That's what I would think intuitively anyway. Since a home is the largest investment most people will make in a lifetime, it only makes sense to protect and grow that investment by maintaining your property and encouraging your neighbours to do the same. Therefore, a car parked on his front lawn is not only unsightly, but also has an impact on my net worth in a round about way.

[peter12]

Originally Posted by return to the red

We used to live across from a drug house (didn't know this at the time) but the guy was also in concrete work so he had crappy vehicles, trailers that had flat tires, lumber and generally his place looked like shat. I called by-law on him numerous times but they never did anything about it because they said his business was registered out of his house so technically he was allowed to keep all that crap like that

It looked absolutely horrible so we sold our house and moved into a pretty up-scale neighbourhood thinking we would get away from that crap. Unfortunately I think we moved into an area that has many people that are "house-poor" because I see people BBQ'ing on the front step when they have a deck at the back and sheets used as curtains. Ah yes the joys of living in Lethbridge

Was this guy's name, Duane, by any chance? Small, loud little guy? With a deaf wife?

[return to the red]

Originally Posted by worth

I'm moving into my first house next week so I guess I will have to deal with some of these things in the future.

But I plan to go and introduce myself to the neighbours to get off on a good foot since I have to live next to these people and they have to live next to me, as I doubt anyone still brings cookies and Jello to welcome new people to the neighbourhood anymore.

I will be meeting my neighbours this summer. I have to do the Landscaping and build a fence, perfect opportunity to meet them, but from past fence stories on CP I'm a little worried that one of them might be a complete ######

[DESS]

Originally Posted by return to the red

I don't agree at all. The neighbourly thing to do would be to make sure that you don't put your neighbours in a situation where they have to call the by-law on you. Those rules are there for a reason.

edit: i agree the trailer thing would have choked me a bit as it was only there for 1 day but I could see if it was parked there for over a week

Holy crap, that sums it up right there. I'll be using that line in the future.

[return to the red]

Originally Posted by peter12

Was this guy's name, Duane, by any chance? Small, loud little guy? With a deaf wife?

not sure, what does he look like? was he into motorcycles and partying pretty heavy? There was someone disabled living with him but I never saw who. This is in Lethbridge right?

[metal_geek]

Originally Posted by worth

I'm moving into my first house next week so I guess I will have to deal with some of these things in the future.

But I plan to go and introduce myself to the neighbours to get off on a good foot since I have to live next to these people and they have to live next to me, as I doubt anyone still brings cookies and Jello to welcome new people to the neighbourhood anymore.

Some people do. I've moved several time, and there are always nice people and always ###### bags.

I have found that houses with garages on the front cut down on the neighbourly interactions some, but make the parking disagreements pretty much go away
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PENE

[Bobblehead]

My first interaction with my neighbours was when I was having the house inspection before closing. The complained the house inspector was parked in "their spot" on the street. I should have noticed the warning signs right then.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by worth

I'm moving into my first house next week so I guess I will have to deal with some of these things in the future.

But I plan to go and introduce myself to the neighbours to get off on a good foot since I have to live next to these people and they have to live next to me, as I doubt anyone still brings cookies and Jello to welcome new people to the neighbourhood anymore.

Depending on the neighbourhood, you can forgo the jello and cookies and exchange tips on growing large plants in the basement, while oogling each others significant others.

[bradster57]

Originally Posted by Bobblehead

My first interaction with my neighbours was when I was having the house inspection before closing. The complained the house inspector was parked in "their spot" on the street. I should have noticed the warning signs right then.

This has always bugged me. Unless you have a driveway, the street is public property and anyone can park there.

[peter12]

Originally Posted by return to the red

not sure, what does he look like? was he into motorcycles and partying pretty heavy? There was someone disabled living with him but I never saw who. This is in Lethbridge right?

We had a drug house behind us here in Calgary a few years ago. The guy was little, kind of muscular, brown moppy hair and really loud. He was also into concrete work, a complete slob, had a handicapped girlfriend, and liked to snort cocaine on his kitchen table in the middle of the afternoon.

He also had an assortment of kids, some of them his, that he locked up in his basement every night. We had police surveillance in our living room one day, they busted the house, and social services took away the kids. Last we heard the police hadn't caught him and that he had moved to either Lethbridge or Airdrie.