We’ve created this petition to call out the unequal enforcement and flawed practices of the Ottawa Bylaw and Regulatory Services against our property.

We are homeowners of a newly built home and we recently added pavers to create a walkway to our front porch. Consequently, a complaint was lodge against us by who we thought was a friendly neighbor that resulted in a Bylaw investigation. The City concluded that we’re in noncompliance of By-Laws 2003-498 and 2008-250. More precisely, those By-Laws indicate that a walkway should not be more than 1.8m wide, forbidden to park on your walkway and forbidden to put pavers on the city highway (past the sidewalk).

Our neighborhood is over 7 years old and we’re the last family to have moved into our street and have pavers put in. yet we are the only house who has received a complaint. Ironically, on our street alone, there are 16 houses with the same violations as us, but none of them have been complained about. This makes us questions this neighbor’s motive for the complaint. If this By-Law violation is so egregious, then surely, they would have complained about every house with the same violation on our street when they installed theirs.

We have had several conversations with City officials to attempt to mediate and find a solution that allows us to keep our interlock, just like our neighbors are able to keep theirs, but we have yet to obtain any clear answer or a way forward. The only clear message we have received is a threat to be taken to Court, and a promise to crack down on this type of violation. When we raise concern to the City about forcing us to remove our pavers and give everyone else a free pass, they state that they apply the law fairly and do not have the manpower to go after every house. Their responses are very contradicting. They work based on complaints which in itself is not applying the law fairly and the City’s lack of manpower is not an excuse for their lack of proactivity and fair enforcement. They thrive on creating a community founded on residents monitoring other residents which creates an unpleasant living environment and allows them to complete their jobs without being proactive.

We have done our research and have found hundreds of houses in our neighborhood with the same violations as us. It is safe to assume that there are thousands in the City of Ottawa as a whole. Perhaps the City is punishing homeowners for a By-Law that the City itself has not enforced proactively and has now lost control of the number of violations there are? The law is supposed to be applied fairly and justly to all, and this is clearly not happening in this case where the City only goes after certain people and willfully ignores the violations made by others, simply because there isn’t a complaint that was made.

We would like to note that the interlock is 100% safe. It does not block pedestrian access, it allows water and snow to melt and trickle down to the road, the same way as sod would. The only difference is that interlock does not require any maintenance.

We understand that there is a purpose for each By-Law and we respect the law. However, it is difficult to accept this situation as it is not fair, not just, and tolerates inequity.  

We are all vulnerable to a disgruntled neighbor and the City’s overreach. We are all homeowners who pay a significant amount of property tax, which is once again increasing. We should have the right to do what we please with out properties, in a safe way that does not negatively impact others.

We must all unite and stand together to stop the City from further victimizing homeowners and continuing their inequitable practices. Please help us by signing this petition as you can be in this same situation. You never know when your neighbors will turn against you and use the law to their advantage by reporting you to the Bylaw services. You are not safe.