#pinkshirtday

Our neighbours are bullies.

We live next to a three unit apartment house, with a family that has a long, unflattering history.

The first incident of issue was when one of the members of that family claimed his family adversed possessed a section of our land.  He also paved over this section of our property without our permission and without a City permit.  The title insurance claim we started, clarified  that this section of land was a ROW over private land, that grew out of a huge historical battle that left another neighbour landlocked, decades ago.   A right of way means others have the right to pass over but they do not own title and it is illegal for anyone to park on it.  The lawyer provided for our title insurance claim expressed that under no circumstance could anyone park on it and that no cutting or trimming of trees, or any other alteration to our property can be made without our permission.

They ignored those legal requests. They asserted to other neighbours that it was a mutual driveway, they didn’t know what we were talking about and they carried on.   They still park where they want and cut our trees, trim our vines and have been caught on our property when not invited.

And they lie. I have heard from other neighbours all sorts of stories. Slanderous stories about us that are not true.  Excited by news crews and given an opportunity to sabotage our reputation – a member of this family – made certain claims that led to her receiving an award.  She specifically said, to whomever would listen, that we had no smoke alarms and other unsavoury comments about our home and parenting. Very hurtful and defaming comments. Eventually, saddened by the incident, I contacted Captain Ratushniak from Toronto Fire Services to set the record straight. He said “she alone would have to live with that action”.  None of the four teens at our house, during the fire, heard this woman knock or acknowledged she assisted them – in anyway to safety.  In fact, one of them swore at her because she was screaming at them to shut our door so the fire wouldn’t be fed and possibly spread to her mother’s home. She was very unkind.

But we let that go, we never confronted her. That was our choice, after all she was one of several people who called 911.

Thinking we could mend our issues while we were out of our home during the rebuild,  I initiated a mediation through St Stephen’s House. But things escalated and we withdrew. We didn’t want to cause a problem as they were harassing our work crew.  They kept going through our locked barrier to put their demolition debris in our construction bin and got angry when they were asked to stop.

In an attempt to be kind, we allowed the bullying.  Around Christmas of this year, a plaque I had drilled to our fence was violently smashed and thrown to the ground,  it read: “Do good and good will come to you”.  I put it there after the previous one I had there – that said “Do onto others as you would have them do onto you”, was unscrewed and thrown into our yard. We didn’t say anything but I grumbled to all my friends.

Violently smashed

 

One day, while getting our yard ready for the season, I noted the smell of bleach in one of the planters that flanks the ROW.  I also looked up and saw several severed branches from our tree that canopies the ROW overhead. I don’t know when the cutting happened.  The cuts were at least 15 feet above, it must have been difficult for them to reach, but cut them they did.  They were asked not to do so, both by the Title Claim Lawyer and the Mediation lawyer. But they did it anyway.

I often reflect that they had planted a row of trees within a few feet of our shared property line, many are quite mature and their canopy touches our home.  They were planted aggressively and intentionally and that act concerns me. Who doesn’t know that trees widen?

One of the retired aged daughters that lives in this home,  planted a row of Japanese Knotweed – as an aggressive act, even though she knew the dangers of such an action. Thank goodness the City of Toronto advised her of her action and requested she remove it.

Bullying is wrong and I have absolutely every right to call them out on it. Their history is none of my business and you’ll note, I am not writing about the issues they are known to have had.  I am writing about the bullying we have experienced.

I’m wearing pink right now and I’m proud to participate in #dayofpink2016.   There are many forms of bullying and bullying from neighbours is unacceptable.