While back I wrote you about fence problem here. My house on left this picture.
It now almost winter, and fence still not fixed by neighbor workers. Worker now in basement fixing sewer problem in basement neighbor. My house on right this picture. Dirt pile still here.
I smell bad smell coming from neighbor basement, like outhouse. Workers use basement floor for bathroom. I call county, they not come.
Who to call?
Health department for starters
cture.
City health dept, city building dept. Personally, as a guy, I would take a shovel and just throw all the dirt back onto their property, as sloppily a s possible, to make a big mess for them.
But, first take a lot of pictures showing the dirt pile on your property, a nd save a file with all of your posts to this group in case there is any qu estion about what happened.
Definitely to that, because people forget the details of what happened and notes made at the time help them to remember.
And because they are contemporaneous notes made at the time things happened, which can be good evidence in court or even in front of the health inspector or the police. As opposed to notes people write up all at once the night before the hearing.
Print out your posts,
I can only say I told you so. You folks remember how this started a couple months ago? The neighbor asked if he could pile dirt on Leza's property while making repairs, instead of moving it a little way and keeping it on his own property. She said no. Within days the dirt pile was not only on her property anyway, it was actually even piled up against the side of her house.
There were several people here that basically told Leza to kiss his ass, be nice, not do anything, let it go, because you don't want to have bad neighbors. I said she already had a bad neighbor, because a skunk is a skunk, and it's likely to only get worse if you let them walk all over you. And here we are a couple months later, the dirt pile is still there, and the situation has only gotten worse.
As for what to do now, Leza says she called the county, but who at the county? As others have suggested, I'd call the health dept about the stench and the building/code enforcement officials about the stench, work going on. Tell them they've been working on the foundation, excavating from the basement and piling the dirt on her property, apparenlty doing sewer work, stench is coming out, and ask if they have PERMITS.
I have doubts the workers are actually creating that kind of stench by using the basement they are working on as a bathroom. Seems really dumb. I would think it more likely it's from the sewer piping they are working on.
Also unknown is what interraction Leza has had with them since last time. I believe she confronted the contractor who had piled the dirt on her yard and he told her it would be there only a few days. Did she talk to the neighbor about that or any contact since? Are the neighbors living there while this stench is going on?
For the dirt pile, I'd send them a letter saying they have a week to remove it and put everything back the way it was. Send the letter both regular mail and certified or whatever they call it up in Canada where the recipient has to sign for it. Then if it's not gone in a week, hire someone to remove it. Send the neighbor the bill. If they don't pay, hopefully they have small claims court up there.
I don't know if we ever found out the answer as to who own's the fence they tore up? It wasn't in great shape, but it needs to be fixed/replaced and I'd want to be prepared by knowing exactly where the property line is, etc because I can see that coming next.
I had a similar problem years ago.
my downspout underground lines clogged, so I started digging them by hand, and also decided to fill in a low spot in the back yard. it would create a mini lake under heavy rain, and i wanted to put a shed there.
well the neighbor directly behind me, complained about the odor of the sewe r crud being dumped in the low spot at the property line...
i was using some of the low quality dirt I had delivered to backfill some of the underground line area, and some of the great quality topsoil that wo uld eventually be covered by my shed as a topping for the underground line area, so it would grow grass well.
I had purchased what was supposed to be topsoil, but that was not what they delivered;(
I got really mad since all i was attempting to do was improve things.
I tried explaing all this to my neighbor who ranted about the stench, which had no odor at all.
leza,
Sorry that your neighbor is turning out to be such a problem. Time to get your ducks in a row and think about legal action. Since you live in Canada, I can't give you specific advice. The general advice so far is pretty good. Look at your Province's court web-site. I looked at the Alberta site. It's well organized and will get you underway.Small claims has a $100 filing fee. You'll also need to serve the defendant, about $50. I think you call Animal and Bylaw Services in your City to complain about the construction mess and the smell.
Dave M.
Hmmm, Is (s)he trolling by any chance?
Oren,
I've no idea why Animal and Bylaw Services handles such matters but the Health Dept (recommended by a few posters) is not the right dept.
Dave M.
When the neighbor's actions forced sewage into her basement, the Health Department sounds good to me.
cture.
She said neighbors basement has sewer problems and they are working on it, but have not done anything about their dirt in her yard.
Wes,
She lives in Canada. The Health Dept.up there is currently giving out flu shots. She has a problem with a smell which she believes comes from her neihbor's property. Getting a flu shot won't fix this. The Bylaw folks will investigate this violation of the Bylaws.
Dave M.
I hate to be forced into saying good things about _our_ health department, but they _can_ do two things at a time.
Of course, with it not actually in _her_ basement, ....
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