Dealing with an Anti-Social Neighbour
SURVIVING OUR NEIGHBOURHOOD MONSTER
Toronto, Ontario
Our neighbour-from-hell is a radio show host has-been, who used to dispense advice to dog lovers weekly. Under her veneer of respectability, of dog-lover, teacher and mother, lurks a monster who for years took singular pleasure in harassing our family next door. She kept up her behaviour although our family was straining to care for a daughter with multiple sclerosis and an aging, ill father.
Everything below is on the public record in the City of Toronto, Ontario, because we fought back using the City’s resources. If you have a similar story, take encouragement from this tip – it can help. If you hang in there and call police, animal control, and bylaw officers for every infraction, their combined weight can help curb behaviour of even an incorrigibly anti-social and narcissistic monster-neighbour like ours.
Trouble comes in pairs. She has a partner. This small-time thug used very loud power tools constantly, even after hours in breach of the noise by-laws, parked his white truck in front of hydrants like he owned the street, parked in our driveway and arranged for their associates to block it with their cars and SUVs while dogs were picked up and dropped off at all hours at her home. We complained to the City about the noise but it really only stopped when he decided the job was done. We also complained about his bully tactics with the vehicles, calculated to maximize stress.
She has always run a dog kennel from her home – styled in her ads a dog bed & breakfast near a park - for all sizes and breeds. For years, as many as 20 large dogs would bound noisily about in her backyard 24/7. She didn’t keep the yard clean; in fact, the City ordered her to clean it up to community standards. In Toronto it is illegal – for obvious reasons – to operate such a business in a residentially zoned area. Not to mention the lengthy fence wars, starting with her ugly, tarp-covered chainlink fence and only ending when she had to erect a wooden fence in its place. As well, she and the Thug had cedars planted, presumably to better conceal the on-going illegal business.
When we complained to the City, humongous piles of dog feces were regularly deposited on our driveway and garden. Once she got started with this disgusting behaviour she carried it on non-stop for about five years. She only desisted after police were brought in, but somehow, despite having been temporarily closed down twice, still manages to run her business.
This pusillanimous parasite has thrived and profited at the expense of her decent, quiet, law-abiding neighbours and in flagrant breach of our laws.
